Down Memory Lane
by Queen Of Cliffhangers
Summary: Ch1213! Harry, Ron, and Hermione expected that their trip to Seattle, America would be Voldemortfree and...well, frankly boring. After a catastrophic even tears the trio apart, Hermione and Ron are frantic to find their friend, unknowing that he has a sli
1. Chapter One: The Big Bang

**Chapter One- The Big Bang**

"Everyone always tells me that life is too important to rush through.  In fact, if it weren't for the little crazy things, like Lia sneezing and hitting her head on the table during Chemistry Freshman year, life wouldn't be worth living at all."  ~ Jessakah Ashley Gilligan

_Harry squinted as he tried to see through the mist that enveloped him, and his squinting rewarded him the sight of swirling figures that seemed to dance around on the outskirts of his vision.   A quiet laugh echoed around him, breaking the mist into pieces as if it had been no more than glass.  The swirling figures that Harry had seen behind the fog danced into view and began to spin around him in a circle.  Harry's eyes widened as he saw Cedric Diggory and his parents among the figures.  Cedric's gray eyes held a deadened look that scared Harry slightly. Lily Potter's green eyes, so much like his own, held the same look.  A red glow began to light the area, and Harry saw that the light was not coming from any natural source, but the spirits' eyes._

_"Harry," they called.  "We are dead because of you.  You killed us."_

_"I didn't!" Harry cried.  "Voldemort did!"_

_"You told me to take the cup with you," Cedric said, stepping forward out of the circle.  The spirits continued their disconcerting dance around them.  "He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named wanted you, and therefore you killed me."  He stepped back into the circle, and another figure took his place._

_It was a young girl, no more than ten or eleven.  Harry thought he had seen her in line for the Sorting the previous year.  "My parents were Aurors," she proclaimed.  Her voice was musical and haunting, and caused goosebumps to rise all over him.  "You-Know-Who came to my house one night, wanting to know where you were living.  They could not tell him, and therefore you killed me."  She ducked her head forward, her light brown hair swirling around her head, and stepped back into the circle.  Harry's parents now stepped forward._

_"He wanted you," Lily Potter told him.  "He wanted you to be raised as a loyal Death Eater.  He wanted the children of the new generation to walk behind him and follow his bidding.  We refused, so therefore you killed us."_

_"No, I didn't!" Harry repeated.  "I didn't kill you; Voldemort did!_

"It was Voldemort!"  Harry sat straight up in his bed.  He was breathing hard, and a cold sweat dripped down the side of his face.

"Whazzat?" a sleepy voice asked from a few feet away from him.  Harry jumped and lost his balance.  The end result was that he landed painfully on the floor at a strange position on his shoulder.

"Oww!" he moaned, using his left arm to push him upright.  "Sorry, Ron," he told the other boy.

"Couldn't you have waited four more hours to start yelling?" he asked after glancing at his Chudley Cannons alarm clock that he had brought to Hermione's house.

"I guess not," Harry replied.  "I'll try to get back to sleep."

"No more yelling!  Owl Mum for a sleepless-dream potion."  Ron's voice began to get thick and quiet again.

"Er…dreamless-sleep, Ron."

"Wh-ere…"  Harry sighed and crawled back under the covers.  He would owl Mrs. Weasley in the morning for one before they went to Heathrow airport.

~&~

Peals of laughter erupted from the living room of Lia Florence's house as she made her way there, juggling three large bags of popcorn, five Vanilla Cokes, and one handheld video camera.

"Waaaait!" she cried, shuffling her feet as fast as she could without dropping all the stuff she was holding.  "Pause the movie!  Pause the damn movie!"

"Lianne Christine Florence!" her mother's voice called from upstairs.  "Watch your mouth!"  Lia chose to ignore the use of her full name and continued to berate her friends.

"Cool it, Lia," one of the teens on the couch said.  She curled one of her white-blond waves around her forefinger and attempted to make it spiral.  It stubbornly remained a wave, and the girl released it.  "We can rewind it."

Lia sighed and tossed the popcorn bags down the stairs to the couch and then followed with the cokes and camera.  "It doesn't matter, Kirsten."

"You're right," said another of the girls who was lying sprawled across the only boy on the couch and the two other girls.  "It was only an extra anyway.  Pass me that DVD box, would you?"  Lia put down the cokes and camera and tossed the DVD box to her friend.

"Could you give that one to me?" Kirsten asked, pointing to a _Lord of the Rings_ DVD box.  Lia gave her a funny look but did so.

"Pass that one, would ya?" the third girl asked.

"Okay, what is going on?" Lia asked suspiciously.  "You aren't all going to throw the boxes at me when I sit down, are you?"

"No, but great idea.  What do you think, Chris?" Kirsten asked.  "Jack?  Pyro?"

"Nah," all three said in unison.

"Pass the boxes, Lia," Pyro said.

After the DVD boxes had been fairly distributed among the four sniggering teens, Pyro, who sat squished in between Kirsten and Chris, and beneath Jack, pressed the play/enter button on the remote control.  Lia looked at the TV screen and saw the words "Sing Along" on the top of the screen before it blacked out and the clip began.  Lia quickly grabbed her video camera and turned it on, pointing it at her friends.

Before long, Lia barely had enough breath left to breathe.  The four teens were doubled over laughing, but that didn't stop them from trying to chant along with the monk on the television screen.  Every few seconds or so, they would take the DVD box and slap themselves in the forehead with it at the exact moment the monks on the screen would.

"Oh, that's rich, that's rich!" Lia yelped as it finished.  Jack fell off the couch and began to cough and whoop violently.  Chris lunged for the coffee table and plucked up her inhaler and offered it to her.  She didn't take it.

"Shit; she's _dead_!" Pyro whispered.

"I'm not quite dead yet," Jack murmured.  She opened her eyes and was forced to fend for herself when pillows came flying at her from all directions.

~&~

Harry and Hermione each grabbed one of Ron's arms and attempted to haul him through the doorway onto the airplane.  Ron stuck fast, however, and stood with his blue eyes dark and wide with fear.

"I-I-I—you _can't_ be serious!" he finally stammered.  "You-you can't make me go on that _thing_!"

"Oh, for Heaven's sake!" Hermione burst out.  Then, in a quieter tone, "You rode Harry's broomstick around your house forty-two times this morning before we could get you to come down."

"Excess energy," Harry input with a yawn.  "He stole most of mine and used it for his own."

"I'm pretty sure it was the coffee tart that Fred gave him," Hermione disagreed, shaking her head.  "We all know not to trust whatever either twin gives away willingly."

"All of us except for Ron," Ginny said, coming up behind her brother.  She stopped suddenly and looked at the door as if it was the gaping maw of a Basilisk.  "You can't be serious," she said.

"I'll take Ron," Harry said, "and you take Ginny."  Hermione transferred herself over to the youngest Weasley and both her and Harry managed to get the scared magic users onto the plane.

"I can't believe that we're going to go to Seattle!" Hermione said excitedly.  "They have a music museum that I really want to go to!"

"And a quidditch museum," Harry whispered.

"All you think about is quidditch, don't you?" Hermione asked soberly.

"Mmm…yep."  Harry grinned at her and a small snort of laughter from behind Harry told him that Ron had heard the whole conversation.

"I haven't been on an aeroplane in years," Hermione announced, gazing around the cabin.  "And I can't believe that Mum and Daddy got us first class seats!  I've never been in first class."

"We needed to give you something significant for being made a Prefect," said Helen Granger.  She smiled down at her daughter.

"Thanks Mum."  Hermione grinned back at her mother and then began to climb the stairs to the upper level of the 747.  Harry glanced up the stairs at Hermione's retreating back, and then to at Ron and Ginny.  They were looking up the stairs as well, but their feelings about them were plastered all over their faces.

"We have to go up _there_?" Ginny asked quietly.  Harry sighed and grabbed Ginny's wrist and began to climb the stairs.

~&~

Jack groaned sleepily and opened her eyes to see what had woken her up at such an ungodly hour.  Sitting in front of the screen door sat Lia, writing in a notebook no bigger than her foot.

"Lia?" Jack asked croakily.  She swallowed and cleared her throat as the teen looked up.

"Did I wake you up?" she asked, finishing what she wrote and closing the notebook.

"Sort of.  I heard something scratching."

Lia held her pen out for Jack to take.  "I rub the rubber part along the bottom when I'm thinking.  I didn't think it was so loud, though!"

"Don't worry about it.  I need to use the bathroom anyway."  Jack wriggled out of her sleeping bag and got to her feet.

"Hey Jack?"  She turned around again to face her friend.  "Do you believe in magic?"

"Magic like miracles or magic like…" Jack wiggled her fingers around.

"Yes."

"Yes what?"

"Yes, magic like…" Lia wiggled her fingers around too.  She leaned back up against the couch and stared out the window.

"Lia, some people believe that magic is given to people by the Devil.  Others believe that people are just born with it—as if it were just an eye or a leg.  I believe that the only kind of magic that exists is miracles."  Jack looked out the window too.  "There are too many people on this damn planet for magic not to exist in one form or another.  We just haven't discovered it yet."

Lia nodded slightly, but didn't say anything again until Jack had come back from the bathroom and fallen back asleep.  "What about the magic that is gifted in a person to use as they feel fit?"

~&~

Hermione pushed the button on her chair and leaned back.  _First class isn't all that I thought it would be,_ she thought idly as the steward walked down the isle offering beverages.

"Let me do the ordering," she had told Harry, Ron, and Ginny earlier, after an almost disastrous breakfast at the airport.  Ginny had wanted a glass of pumpkin juice, but Muggles didn't sell the drink, since they thought it was distasteful.

"Can I get something for you, Miss?" asked the steward as he stopped at her row.

"Er…just water, please."  The steward scribbled something on his notepad and looked at Ron.  "He'll have the same," Hermione interrupted as Ron opened his mouth.  He glared at her, but she ignored it.

"Alright."  The steward moved on to Harry's row behind them, and Hermione heard Harry ordering water for himself and Ginny.

_Oh, I really hope that Ron doesn't get airsick_, Hermione thought suddenly.  _That would make everyone up here miserable, no one more than me!_

The flight to JFK international airport was uneventful except for whenever the pilot came over the PA system to speak to the passengers.  Ron and Ginny were akin to Mexican jumping beans at those times, causing Harry to laugh helplessly and Hermione to attempt to explain to the other passengers that it was Ginny and Ron's first time on an airplane.

Hermione felt that she was overly perky when they stepped off the plane.  Ginny and Ron kept stifling yawns, and Harry looked half dead with his face pale and dark circles under his eyes.

"Harry, when was the last time that you had a good night's sleep?" Hermione asked him as they sat down on a row of uncomfortable blue plastic chairs that had been placed by the front doors.

Harry yawned widely.  "The night before the Third Task."  Hermione's eyes widened.

"Harry, that was over a year ago!"

He looked mildly surprised.  "Only?  I thought it was much longer."

Hermione buried her face in her hands.  "Harry, why didn't you _tell_ someone?"

Harry shrugged.  "Nobody asked.  Plus, it's not like I'll fall down dead from lack of sleep.  It's more likely that Voldemort will burst through those doors over there and start cursing everything in sight with an incomplete Jelly Legs curse."  He grinned at her.

_He's so disarming,_ Hermione thought with a sigh, glancing out the window to see if the bus that was to take them to their hotel had arrived yet.  Their next flight—this one to San Francisco—didn't leave for another fourteen hours.  _Maybe that's what makes him so darn cute._

~&~

"Anyone up for a road-trip?" Lia asked, dangling a key chain with four keys on it in front of her.

"Where?" Chris asked.  He had come over—again—insisting that they watch _Monty Python and the Holy Grail_ once more.

"I'll have to call my mother and ask," Kirsten said at the same time.

"The Saab or the Mercedes?" Jack asked with an evil glint in her eyes.

"Seattle, the phone's right there, and the Saab," Lia said.  "And _no_, Jack, you can't drive.  You got to drive us all the way to Newport and back; now it's my turn to scare everyone half to death."  Jack pouted.

"Suits?" Pyro asked.

"Suits," Lia confirmed, promptly dragging out a duffel bag and beginning to stuff things into it, including a blue racing swimsuit.

~&~

As the plane lurched violently due to the terrible turbulence, three teenagers with a secret to keep stared at the fourth.

"I _hate_ flying.  _I_ hate flying!" Harry repeated, gripping the armrest of his chair and trying to keep what the airline had called "lunch" in his stomach.

"How can you hate flying?" Ron hissed.  "You're the captain of the quidditch team, and you're practically attached to your Thunder 3000!"

Harry ignored him.  "_I ha_—"

"Remind me," Ron interrupted.  "What was the final score of the last quidditch match that you played?"

"Three-hundred fifty to ten," Harry told him.  "In our favor."

"That's what I thought.  _How can you hate flying_?!"

"Would either of you two care for some peanuts?" the dimply stewardess asked them.  Instead of responding, Harry thrust his hand into the pocket of the seat in front of him and pulled out the small paper bag, and emptied his stomach quite thoroughly.

~&~

"Thirty-nine bottles of Sprite on the wall; thirty-nine bottles of Sprite!" sang the five teens as they passed around a twelve ounce bottle of the mentioned liquid.

"Take it down," Jack yelled.

"Splash it around!" Chris dumped half of it over her head and listed to her scream.  Chris smirked.  Jack smacked him.  He didn't stop smirking.

"This is my _brother's_ car!" Lia yelled at him.  "You get the seats sticky, guess who gets to clean them?"

"You?" Chris asked innocently.  Lia turned around and glared at him.

"Caaaaaaaaaaar!" Kirsten and Pyro screamed, pointing at the road.  Lia turned around and swung the steering wheel violently to the right to avoid becoming a hood ornament on the 67' Chevy that plowed through where they had just been.

"Watch where yer goin'!" a voice yelled to them.  As one, four of the five teens raised their hands through their windows and made a very rude gesture towards the Chevy.

"Now, where were we?" Chris asked.  "Oh, yeah; thirty-eight bottles of Sprite on Jack's head…!"

~&~

"Thank God; they're finally asleep!" Ginny whispered to Hermione.  She turned and saw that Harry was leaning up against the window, his half-full airsickness bag sitting in his lap.  Hermione gingerly leaned over and picked it up, disgusted at the way the puke sloshed up against the sides of the bag.  She nearly thrust it at the stewardess, who also looked disgusted, and tenderly wiped off Harry's flushed face with the wet cloth the stewardess had given her.  Harry moaned slightly, but did not wake up.

Ron snorted and turned to face the other way.

"I hate to say this, but they're so cute this way," Ginny murmured.

"I know."  Hermione gently removed Harry's glasses and put them in her purse.

"They're so…vulnerable."

Hermione snorted.  "Harry's anything but vulnerable.  He can take anything that anyone tosses at him, and then some."

"And Ron?" Ginny asked.  Her bright brown eyes sparkled with humor.

"Ron's just an overgrown puppy that likes to pick fights with anything that moves," Hermione said simply.

"I heard that," Ron murmured, opening his left eye and glaring at her.  More than one of the passengers glared in their direction when Ginny and Hermione burst out laughing.

~&~

"Okay…chicken burger with pickles, cheeseburger—whoops, that's a hamburger—Dr. Pepper—hands off my milkshake!—pass me the fries, would you?"

Chris picked up the nearly empty Burger King bag and peered inside.  "Didn't you order onion rings?"

"Don't be an idiot, Chris.  Of course I did."

"They're not in the bag."

"That's because they're all over your jacket."  Pyro and Jack sniggered in the back seat.

"May I have my Root Beer now?" Kirsten asked after swallowing a bite of her hamburger.

"Take it.  Chris, fork over the French fries!" Lia told him.

Chris stared at her, then began to imitate her.  "French fries!  I need French fries!  I need—"  He passed the bag over and Lia dug into it for the box.

"Hey, hey, hey!  Road.  Attention payage!" Pyro scolded as the teen frowned down at the constricting bag.

"Sorry!"  Lia straightened just in time to careen out of the way of a person on a bike.  The tires on the Saab squealed in protest, and several squeals of pain were issued from the back seat.

"Slow down, Lia!" Kirsten said, emerging back into view with French fries sticking out of her hair.  "If I had wanted to get killed in a car accident, I would have asked my sister to drive!"

"Oh, hush," Lia scolded.  "Your driving skills aren't any better than mine."

"But at least I wasn't sixteen when I got my permit," Kirsten taunted.  The back of Lia's neck reddened.  She turned right around in her seat and glared at her friend.

"At least I don't—"

"Oh my God!  Look out!"  Lia swiveled around and her eyes widened.  There was a thump, another squeal of the tires, and a terrific crash.  Then everything went black.

~&~

_//One and a half hours earlier…//_

"Urg…ug…mmph," Harry groaned as he stepped off the plane.  The weather in Seattle was sunny, bright, and hot, a normal northwestern day during the summer according to Hermione.  Harry fervently disliked it immediately, since he was wearing a sweater and long pants, and his dark hair soaked up every ray that tried to reach everyone else in the area.  Quite the opposite, Ron was shivering violently and couldn't talk without stuttering.

"Oh, this is wonderful!" Hermione said cheerfully.

Harry grunted and walked forward as if his limbs had been filled with lead.  Mrs. Granger yawned and stretched, while Mr. Granger looked around the runway and squinted up to the control tower.

"Did you know that they had to rebuild that tower due to an earthquake two years ago that was centered in Olympia?" Hermione asked them, turning towards Harry.

Harry grunted again and picked up his suitcase off the nearby cart.  He noted dimly that on the side it read _A La Carte_.

"Hermione, give it a rest," Ron yawned.  "The only thing I want to know is that we'll be at the hotel in five minutes."

"Actually…" Hermione grinned at them sheepishly.  "It's a bed and breakfast that's a few miles outside of town."

"And that will take us _how_ long to get there?" 

Hermione made a noise that sounded suspiciously like, "Meep!"

"Hermione…"

She looked up at him with a sheepish grin.  "An hour…?"

Harry stepped between them before Ron could blow up at her.  "Thank you for arranging this for us, Hermione," he said, giving Ron a warning glance.  He looked furious, and rubbed his arms the way he did when he was irritated.

"Yes," Ron said through gritted teeth.  "Thank you."

"You're welcome," Hermione mumbled, and began to walk towards the covered walkway.

"That girl," Ron spat.  "An hour…for God's sake, an _hour_!"

"Plus typical Seattle traffic," Ginny added.

"Maybe that's what she was allowing for," said Harry.  "We might end up lucky.  Or we could try for Wizarding transportation if things get iffy," he added in a whisper.

"Muggles can't ride on the Knight Bus, though," Ron reminded him.  "They can't even see it!"

"Then we're stuck taking the way Hermione said."  Harry yawned widely.  "Come on.  I'm exhausted and I would like to get to bed."

The trip through the airport was fascinating for even Harry.  A small underground train that Harry had heard a small American Muggle call "the subway" (wasn't that sandwich shop?  Now he was confused) stretched between four of the terminals.  Ron and Ginny had no problems with the train other than the sliding doors.  After they were sure that they wouldn't randomly shut on them, they boarded and again started when the PA system began to spit out directions in multiple languages, including French Spanish, German, Japanese, Albanian, Jamaican, Zulu, and last, but not least, English.

After hiking around for about twenty minutes, they located the front doors and called a cab.  The cab arrived five minutes later and before too long, they were off, crammed into the small vehicle.  Because Harry and Hermione were small, they were able to double-buckle in the back seat, while Mr. and Mrs. Granger sat in the front.  Harry was so tired that he leaned up against the door and dozed.

An hour later Ron was, in his opinion, rudely shaking him awake.  "Come on; we're here!"  Harry opened his eyes blearily and pushed his glasses up so he could rub his eyes.

"Where are we?" he asked, yawning.

"_The Starlight Inn_," Ron said, sniffing distastefully.  "The best thing about this place is that they have a pool."

"Oh," Harry said gloomily.

"I thought that you would like that, Harry," Hermione called from the boot of the cab.  She was trying to dislodge her suitcase without bringing everything else down on her.

"I would, if I could swim."

"But you swam in the second task!" Ron insisted.  He walked around to the back of the cab and yanked Hermione's suitcase out with one hand and then handed it to her.

"I was using Gillyweed.  Anyone could swim using Gillyweed."  Harry got out of the car and walked around to the back as well.  He began to help Ron pile suitcases on the ground, and watched as Ron took two of them inside.

After all of the suitcases had been brought into their room, Harry decided that he needed to take a walk to clear his mind.  Hermione had nixed their idea of taking naps, saying that it would be better if they got used to the time change by going to bed at a more decent hour.

The scenery was different than in England, he noticed immediately.  There were more evergreens, and the air was fresher.  Up ahead, he saw a biker kick off from the sidewalk and begin to ride forward.  A red car suddenly screamed around the corner, nearly hitting the biker.  It swerved, narrowly missing him.  Music blared from inside the car, and Harry suddenly realized that if he didn't move, it would hit him.  But like a deer in the headlights, he couldn't even blink.  He felt as if he'd been frozen into place by a _petrificus partialus_ charm.

The car slammed into him, and everything was lost in a whirlwind of pain, screaming, and eternal darkness.


	2. Chapter Two: Guilt Trips

Chapter Two-Guilt Trips

"Some things make absolutely no sense to me.  Like how mini marts are open for twenty-four hours, yet they have locks on the doors."  ~Avon "Pyro" Archer

The dark haired boy opened his eyes and gazed blearily around himself.  He seemed to be in a void of darkness that was never ending, except for a point quite far off in the distance that was filled with a radiant bright light.  Something tickled at the edge of his mind, though what it was, the boy couldn't tell.

_A voice reached out to him through the darkness, bidding him to come closer to the bright light.  Something in him told him not to trust the voice, but to stay right where he was.  He didn't know why, but he listened to it._

Maybe this voice could tell him who he was.

~&~

Lia awoke to a soft beeping that reverberated through wherever she was.  Very slowly, she opened her eyes and tried to focus around her surroundings.  She was in a small room with white walls and a divider going through about midway through it.  The beeping seemed to belong to a machine that was near the bed she was in.  Her breath caught in her throat and she bolted upright.

//"Oh my God!  Look out!"…Squealing tires…screaming…crashing…pain…blood…\\

"Oh no," Lia breathed, and forced herself to look at her left arm.  It immediately began to throb painfully as she inspected the damage.  An ace bandage ran from just below her fingers to her elbow, and then halfway up her upper arm.  Poking it gingerly, she gasped as shockwaves of pain rocketed through her body.  She gritted her teeth to stop from screaming in pain.

"Lia?  Are you awake?" a familiar voice asked from across the room.

"Jack?" Lia called out, disbelieving.  Jack must have been out of her bed already when Lia awoke, because the divider parted and she came through.  With a stab of envy, Lia saw that Jack was completely uninjured, except for a small bandage on her forehead.

"Oh, gol.  Look at your arm!" Jack exclaimed, pointing.

Lia glanced at it and then, with a perfectly straight face, looked up again.  "Now how did that get there?"

Jack laughed, and then quickly sobered.  "The…the guy we hit…"

Lia's insides turned to ice.  "Yeah?"

"He's in a coma.  They're not sure if he's going to come out of it."  Jack looked away as Lia felt the corners of her eyes prickle with unshed tears.  "He's in pretty bad shape.  They wouldn't tell me how bad it was, but I think he hurt his head and had a few broken bones, at the very least."

"Oh God," Lia murmured, burying her face into her good hand and arm.  She looked up and wiped her eyes.  "How long have I been out?"

"They brought us in five hours ago.  Kirsten and Pyro are in another room, but they're not hurt much either.  I think that Pyro sprained her right wrist and Kirsten was rambling, but that's normal for her.  I had trouble convincing the doctor of that, though."

Lia laughed quietly.  "Wait…what about Chris?"

"He's annoyed.  They say that his ankle is broken, and they told him he won't be swimming for about a year."

"Uh oh," Lia groaned.  "He'll want my head dressed and served on a platter, then."

"Remember when Mike couldn't break a minute on his fly?" Jack asked her.

Lia grinned.  "And he kept cussing and scaring everyone?"

"That's the one.  Well, Chris was the same way when they separated us."

"Well, I bet that was pretty."

"Oh, yeah.  Gorgeous!"  The two girls laughed quietly.  A knock interrupted their laughter, and an adult—most likely a nurse, Lia thought—stuck his head in.

"Your friend Chris wants to see you."

~&~

"Where's Harry?"

Hermione looked up from her book.  "What?"

Ginny rolled her eyes.  "I said, 'Where's Harry?'  He said that he was going for a walk hours ago, and he hasn't come back yet."

"He probably just got lost," Hermione said, flicking the page of her book over and glancing at the back.   "As long as he has his wand, he'll be fine."

Ron entered the room and leaned up against the doorway.  "Does either of you two know where Harry is?  He left his wand on the bed."  He held it up to verify himself.  Ginny and Hermione looked at each other; their worry was quite plain on their faces.

~&~

Jack glanced worriedly at Lia as their wheelchairs squeaked down the hallway.  Her face looked as if it had been carved from stone, while her eyes were bright.  Whether it was from fear or from pain, Jack couldn't tell, since her friend hadn't said a word since the nurse had come to get them.

Chris and the strange boy's room was over two hallways in the critical ward.  They had housed Chris with him for no reason except that the boy would have been alone if he awoke.  He hadn't had any identification on him, nor had anyone been near him when the accident occurred.

And even after five hours, no one had called for him.

"How much farther till we get there?" Jack heard herself asking.  She hadn't even realized that she was talking to the evil-looking nurse that was pushing her down the hallway.

"Not much," she answered.  Then, "Doesn't your little friend ever talk?"

Normally we can't get her to shut up, Jack wanted to say.  Instead she said, "Sometimes."  Lia just looked ahead, as if she wanted nothing more than to sink right into the floor.

"What happened to you anyway?  We're not told much, except for what the problem is."

//Bike…boy in the street…collision…screaming…sharp pain…darkness…

An ambulance's wail around her…\\

"It was an accident.  No one meant for it to happen."  Jack looked down at her hands twisted in her lap.

"Of course not, dear," the nurse said idly, turning the chair around the corner.  Lia's evil nurse did the same, and they stopped in front of a room with the number 604 labeled in plain white letters on a green board.  The door, unlike the walls, was blue.  It matched every other door in the hallway.

A low muttering met Jack's ears as the nurses pushed them through the door.  Chris was sitting low in his bed, his leg suspended in the air by a large sling.  Even in her foul mood, Jack could see the corners of Lia's lips twitch, as though she had heard what Chris had been saying.

"Your friends are here, Christopher," one of the evil nurses said.  "You can see them for fifteen minutes; no more."

"Fine with me," Chris muttered, and the nurses left.

There was an awkward silence, in which Lia became overly interested in her hospital smock and Jack felt her eyes wandering around the paintings on the wall.

"That guy's on the other side of the room," Chris said, breaking the silence as if it had been glass.  "That beeping thing has been getting on my nerves, and I kind of wish they would turn it off."

"They won't," Lia murmured softly.  "They wouldn't be able to tell if he died."

"They could hook him up to some machine that made a real loud noise if he suddenly died."

Lia looked at him, horrified, her mouth gaping like a fish out of water.

Jack rounded on him, and felt her cheeks grow warm.  "Chris, don't you ever say a thing like that!  If he dies, do you have any idea how upset Lia would get—how upset any of us would get?  Talk about a guilt trip!"

"She should have been paying attention to the road!" Chris yelled back.  "If she had been, my leg wouldn't be in a cast!"

"Next time I'll make sure you're killed, then!" Lia shrieked, tears rolling out of her green-gold eyes.  "Maybe you won't be so grateful that you escaped with your damn life!"

"Well, thank you for being a guardian angel!"

"Your fu—"  Lia was interrupted by a low moan from the other side of the room.

~&~

"Turn around.  Don't listen to them," a familiar voice said in his mind.  "If you do, you'll never wake up."

"But who am I?" he asked, running his hand through his messy black hair.

A girl swam into view, her long, waist length curls rippling in an imaginary breeze.  A small, sad smile played on her full lips.  "You'll know.  Don't worry.  Just believe what your heart tells you to."  Before he could do anything to stop it, the girl vanished, and the bright light roared towards him, eventually enveloping him.

He squinted, trying to lessen the pain the light brought his eye, and the shrill voice of an angry teenage girl met his ears.

~&~

"Harry!" Ron yelled, his voice hoarse from the half hour they had been searching for their lost friend.

"Harry, where are you?" Hermione said.  She coughed and tried to regain some moisture in her throat.

"Look!" Ginny pointed.  A red car was being detached from a very large—and now very dead—oak tree.  Surrounding the area was bright yellow tape that read "POLICE LINE: DO NOT CROSS" over and over again.

"What happened here?" Hermione asked a nearby boy of about eight.

"The car hit a kid," he said.  "I'm not sure, but I think he died."

"Oh, dear," Ginny said.  "Was he a friend of yours?  A your brother?"

"No," said the boy, shaking his head.  "Actually, I've never seen him before.  Probably from out of town, if not out of state."

"Hermione!" Ron yelled, and she turned to see him bent over and picking something up from the ground.  It was a pair of black-rimmed glasses, quite smashed, and definitely Harry's.

~&~

Kirsten turned over onto her side to glance at Pyro.  "Do you think he's dead?" she asked.

"Dunno.  They would have told us, I think," she answered.  "Poor Lia.  She'll feel bad enough just hitting him.  I remember when she nearly ran over that Shiatsu when she took her driving test, and spilled the instructor's coffee all over his suit."

"Ah, those were the days," Kirsten sighed.  Someone knocked on the door, and two evil-looking nurses came in.

"Your friend wants to see you."

~&~

"Do you think he's waking up?"

"Dunno…oh, God, did he get that scar from the wreck?"

"No, stupid; it wouldn't be a scar if he got it from the wreck!"

The boy squinted into the light and tried to lift up his arm to shield his face from the light.  For some reason, he couldn't move it.

"Jack, he's trying to move.  God, did I paralyze him?"

"No…it's the brace, stupid."

"Would you quit calling me stupid?"

"What's going on?  I can't see while you two are blocking him!"

"Shut up, Chris!" the girls said in unison.

He blinked and everything came into slightly sharper focus.  The boy supposed that he must wear glasses, since everything was so blurry, but he could make out the shapes of two teenage girls leaning over his bed.  One of them had short brown, curly hair that reached to her chin.  Under one of her green-gold eyes ran a scar, though from what the boy couldn't tell.  He turned his head to the other girl.  She was taller and slimmer than the first, with long, straight light brown hair with bright orange streaks and blue-gray eyes.

Where am I? he tried to say, but something constricted his being able to talk, so it came out as a mumble.  The curly-haired girl giggled.

"Look at his eyes!" she exclaimed.  "Have you ever seen a shade of green so bright?"

"Yours, when you're angry," the second girl pointed out.

"Chris," the curly-haired girl said, standing up straight and turning around to look at a point behind her.  "Is there some way to notify a doctor or someone that he's awake?"

"Yeah," a voice answered.  "Tell the evil-looking lady who's coming in right now."

Something creaked—a door opening, perhaps—and the sound of sniggers erupted from across the room.

"He's awake?"

"Yup!"  Curly seemed to be doing some sort of celebrating, though her movements looked hampered.  The boy couldn't guess from what it might be from.  "I didn't kill him!"

//"Kill the spare."

"Avada Kedavra!"\\

"He wasn't dead in the first place, stupid."

"I said quit calling me stupid!"

The boy shifted slightly in the bed he was in and tried not to yell as pain flared in his legs.  Instead, a groan escaped his mouth.

"Everyone out!" said a woman, coming into view.  She angrily wheeled the two arguing girls out of the room and pulled the divider closed.  Calling to the second nurse—this one an evil looking male—they pulled whatever was preventing him from talking out of his mouth and gave him some water.

"Okay, first order of business," the woman said, pulling a clipboard off of the end of his bed.  "I need your name, your birth date, and anything that you might be allergic to."

The boy looked down at his sheets and played with a loose string.  "I don't remember anything."

~&~

Hermione was trying hard to ignore the pains of terror that were pulsing through her stomach.  Her mother was on the phone, trying to contact the police in the area.  Something kept disconnecting her, however, and it didn't help to raise Hermione's mood.

"He'll be okay, 'Mione," Ron told her soothingly, rubbing her back with his hand.

Hermione didn't say anything.  Instead, she continued to stare at the broken glasses that sat in her hands.

"I know what you're thinking, Hermione," Ginny said softly.  "And I would tell you not to, but I know that you're the strongest—and smartest—witch in your year."

"What has that got to do with anything?" Hermione murmured.  "I wouldn't curse you, if that's what you're implying."

Ron glanced at Ginny from behind Hermione's back.  "And that's why Malfoy ended up in the Hospital Wing how many times last school year?"

Hermione sniffed.  "Harry contributed to over half of those."  She began to shake with suppressed tears.  "He's dead.  I know it.  I can feel it.  Harry's not living anymore."  A fat tear rolled down her cheek, and she turned to sob into Ron's shoulder.

~&~

"I can't believe they kicked us out!" Lia exclaimed angrily, pulling the fingers of her good hand through her hair.  Surprisingly, it wasn't as knotted as she thought it would be.  "It's not like we were a menace to him or anything!"

"Lia, who's the one who wouldn't stop shouting?" Jack asked her.  Kirsten tried to hide a smile.

Lia mumbled something and her cheeks pinkened.  "Still…"  The teen grinned hugely.  "I didn't kill him!"

The door opened and the evil looking nurse came out.  "You should consider yourself lucky, Ms. Florence.  The boy won't be pressing charges."

"But she nearly killed him!" Jack exclaimed.  She then blushed as Lia shot her a furious look.

"Why isn't he suing me?" she asked, turning to the nurse.

"He doesn't remember what happened.  The poor boy doesn't even remember his name."

~Four hours later…~

Daniel Shrouder didn't like working graveyard shift any more than your average custodian.  The halls of St. Christopher Memorial Hospital were slightly creepy at night, what with the humming of all the electrical equipment that was hooked up in the various rooms.

He peeked into one that supposedly housed an amnesiac and a boy with a broken ankle.  The boy was supposedly bad tempered and foul mouthed, but the amnesiac hadn't said more than five words since he woke up.

The kid was small for his age—malnourished, the doctor had said—with a shock of messy black hair and emerald green eyes that made one think that the boy had seen things that no human should ever see.  The most curious feature on the boy was a small lightning shaped scar on his forehead above his right eye.

The thing that happened next nearly made Daniel wet his pants.

The divider was violently pulled back so that the boy's bed could be seen from the door, and instead of the normal peaceful scene of the patient sleeping, chaos reined around his bed.  Swirls of green light surrounded him, along with flashes of red and bright white energy.  A blue-white glow joined the previous energies and tried to form a protective barrier around the sleeping boy, but the red energy burst through the blue-white one as if it had been no more than air—which, Daniel supposed, it was.

The green light flashed brightly, expanding to take up the whole part of the amnesiac's space.  When the light formed the shape of a skull with a snake protruding from the mouth, Daniel decided that he had eaten too much of the hospital cafeteria's version of apple pie and ran down the hallway, screaming bloody murder.

~&~

Pyro couldn't understand why she was still awake at eleven-thirty, considering the amount of painkillers the nurse had given her earlier for her sprained wrist.  Feeling slightly silly, the girl sat up in bed and looked around her room.

"What pretty colors," she said dimly, watching the walls swim this way and that.  "I could sit here and watch them all day…"

Shaking her head to clear her vision, Pyro tried to focus on the interesting sounds that were emanating from down the hallway through the open door to the room.  The sounds became louder and louder, until they seemed to be passing the room.

"Wait…" Pyro murmured.  "I want to play tag too…"  She sank down onto her pillows and drifted off into multi-colored sheep dreams.

~&~

Why me? Jack thought to herself as she gazed unseeingly out the window to her left.  Why did I have to be the one to be roomed with Lia?  At least she's finally asleep…

A loud yell came from the opposite side of the room where Lia lay.

"Damn," Jack muttered aloud.

"Sheep…" Lia murmured.  "Don't…step…Li-Li!"

"Li-Li?!" Jack repeated incredulously.  "It's got to be the painkillers…"

"Don't chase me!" Lia yelled.  Jack heard a loud thump and winced as she realized that Lia had probably hit her bandaged arm against the side-table.  "Damn things!  Let go of my arm…"

Jack sniggered and wondered idly why no one was taking care of the lunatic that was running up and down the corridors screaming.

~&~

Ron watched Hermione's prone form on the bed as she slept, her breathing even and calm.  Hermione had been crying since her mother had given up trying to call the police, saying that she would try to contact them again in the morning.  It was as if because her mother had given up trying to get through, Harry's chance of survival had lessened even more.

Actually, he thought bitterly, it has.  Angrily, he pounded his clenched fist on the bedside table and swore.  Why couldn't I have gone with you?  It might have saved your God-forsaken life…

~&~

Voldemort looked up from the book he was reading and sniffed the air through his snake-like nostrils.  "Wormtail?  Bring me the latest map on the location of the Potter boy."

The stammered, "Yes, Master," met his ears, and out of the corner of the Dark Lord's eye he saw a cloaked shape walk to a large silver bowl with runes etched on the side.  He pulled out his wand and stirred the contents of the bowl with it, chanting something under his breath.  When the normal silver-green light did not appear, Voldemort frowned.

"What is the matter, Wormtail?  Did you not say that the spell would last until it was dispelled by the creator?"

"M-my Lord," the man sputtered.  He frowned worriedly and stirred the contents faster.  "It appears, my Lord, t-that he's gone.  That i-is the only explanation."

"Ah," Voldemort sighed, a smile crawling across his thin lips.  "At last…the Boy Who Lived now lives no more.  Rally the Death Eaters," he said to another cloaked figure nearly hidden in the shadows behind his chair.  The smile grew until his teeth were bared almost menacingly.  "We have work to do…"


	3. Chapter Three: Of Multicolored Sheep

Chapter Three-Of Multicolored Sheep

_"Some of my questions actually make you think: if the opposite of con is pro, then what is the opposite of congress?"  ~Chris Tyler Graham_

//_Laughter…A girl with light brown hair that curled around her head, speaking to him.  Dancing.  Music._

_Screams of terror…_

_Red eyes…_\\

The boy looked out the window at the clouds.  _Where are these memories coming from?_ He wondered.  _Who are those people?  What happened to make them all so scared?_

His ears pricked when he heard the door to the room open, but other than that he ignored it.  Instinctively, he knew that the visitors wouldn't be for him.

"Hey, Chris!" a whispered voice said.  It was the girl with the multi-colored hair.

There was a crash as something hit the ground.  "How did you get away from those evil nurses?"

Sniggers.  "Jack ticked off Lia, so she started to scream and yell.  I wish she had had a ruler—that would have made it all the funnier!"  The boy didn't understand the significance of the ruler to "Lia" and "Jack".  He wondered why she had a boy's name as well.

"For you, maybe, but you weren't the one being attacked by a girl who happens to weigh more than you and also happens to be a pretty fierce kicker!"

"Well, you weren't the one having to deal with Kirsten rambling again."

The door opened again, and this time the boy looked over.  It was Curly, the one who had given him a strange look before the nurses had ushered her out the day before.  "Do you know how hard it is to maneuver through these halls and try to keep out of sight from the nurses?" she asked.

"Well, considering that we did it first, yes.  And it _wasn't_ that hard."

"It is when the nurses are patrolling the halls around you!"

//_"How did you two get in here without her seeing you?"_

_"Invisibility cloak, silly.  How else?"_

_"Here—we brought candy and Butterbeer!"_\\

"_Did_ they see you?"

"Of course not!  I'm a master of disguise, did you forget?"

"It's not hard to miss a person with hair like yours, eyes like yours, wearing a hospital smock and a huge ace bandage over her arm."

"How many times have I told you to shut up about my hair?!"  Smiling slightly, the boy peered past the curtain and saw that Curly had pulled her hair back with her good hand and was twisting it around her fingers expertly, as though she had done it a million times or so (which, he supposed, she had).  The action brought another memory to the surface of his brain.

//_The way she twisted her hair around her finger made his mouth go dry.  He had never had feelings for her, but she had grown up so much over the summer.  It was impossible to recognize her for the once nerdy know-it-all girl that she had once been._\\

Laughter.  "Chris, I'm really sorry about what I said yesterday.  I didn't mean any of it."

"S'okay, Lia.  I was just mad that I wasn't going to be able to swim for the next year-and-a-half."

"'Wasn't'?"

"The doctor said it's too early to tell, but he thinks I might heal faster than normal.  Remember when I broke my wrist?"

"Back in freshman year?"

"I was still in eighth grade."

"Whatever.  Yeah, Jack told us all about it, and then when she brought pictures from her fifteenth birthday, I couldn't help but laugh."

The girls giggled.

"Hey, we're laughing at my expense here!"

"Oh, are you hurt?|"

"Yes!  I have a broken leg!  I'm SERIOUS!" he cried, seeing Lia doubled over with laughter.

//_"Be serious."_

_"The last time I checked, I _was_…_"\\

The three girls laughed again.  "Chris, you're a riot."

The door creaked open once again, and the boy heard a thump from the other side of the room.  When a groan of pain was issued from the same general direction, he figured that Curly had lunged behind the bed to hide from one of the nurses.

"Guess who's here!" a new voice said excitedly.

"Oh, no," three voices moaned in unison.

"Lia!  I'm gonna kick your butt!"

"I didn't do it!" Curly yelled out.  The boy leaned forward slightly to see whom she was talking to, and winced when his back protested in pain.

"You nearly killed Kirsten!"

"I did not!"

"And you nearly killed that boy that you hit with your brother's _car_!"

"I didn't hit him!  He hit the car…"

"Anyways—"

Curly interrupted the newcomer.  "—is not a word."

"Any_way_, where is he?  Poor guy must be lonely."

"How do you even know about him?  _I_ certainly didn't call.  Beside, doesn't it add to the hospital bill?"

Two high-pitched giggles erupted from near the door.  "Kirsten was in my head during the accident."

_In her head?_ the boy thought, his brow wrinkling in confusion.  He raised his right arm to rub his forehead, something that seemed quite natural to do while he was thinking, and was dismayed to find that the brace on his arm prevented him from bending it at the elbow.

Chris must have shared his confusion, for he said, "Huh?  In your head?"

There was another giggle.

"I don't even want to know what they were discussing _this_ time," Curly groaned.

"Where is he?"  There was a rustle as somebody moved, and then footsteps.  The dividing curtain was pulled partially aside to reveal the rest of the room.  The girl with orange stripes in her hair was kneeling down near the end of Chris' bed, examining what the hospital deemed "food" splattered near an overturned tray.  Curly was massaging her left arm while sitting on an uncomfortable looking chairs near the end of the room.  Next to her was a girl that the boy didn't recognize.  She had short black hair with the last inch or so dyed a bright blue.  The boy had the feeling that had the rest of her hair been red, it would have looked like flames.  A blond girl was standing in the doorway next to a muscular yet pretty girl who appeared to be about the same age as the rest of them.  With a sudden jolt, the boy realized that he didn't know how old he was.

Curly looked over at him and then looked away.

"Er…" the boy said, gazing over the people in the room once more.

Curly brought her head back to him with an almost audible snap.  "English!"

The boy blinked in confusion.  "I…pardon?"

"You must be from England!  Only the English say 'er' and 'pardon'!"

"Lia," Chris pointed out, "_you_ say 'pardon'."

"What can I say; those nasty Canadians have corrupted me!  But you must be English!"

"Well, that only narrows it down to—oh, how much land?" Chris asked sarcastically.

"Good point.  Anyway…hey, you don't know any of our names, do you?"

The boy started to shake his head, but stopped as a blinding pain erupted in his forehead, right above his right eye.  He winced and said, "Well, sort of…he's Chris."

"Yup, that's Chris.  I'm Lia that's Jack"—she nodded her head in the direction of the girl at the edge of Chris' bed, who stood up and grinned—"whose real name is actually—"

"_Lia_!"

Lia's kind smile turned into an evil grin.  "That's funny; I thought my name was Lia.  Her full name is actually Jessakah." **[an: Nova told me to say this: it's pronounced jess-AH-kah.  Yah…'Chris' came up with it.  Long story.]**

Looking quite angry, Jack shot Lia a glare and then glanced at the boy.  "Oh, yeah?  Well her name is actually Lianne."

"What's wrong with Lianne?  At least my name is pronounced the normal way, _Jessakah_!"

"Lia, leave Jack alone," Chris told her, rolling his eyes.

The boy had to work very hard to hide his smiling.

"_Anyway_, that's Pyro—would you _stop_ that!" she yelled at the girl as the girl with the blue-tipped hair backed quickly away from Lia, looking all around the room to say 'I'm innocent'.  The effect was slightly ruined by the laughter trying to escape her lips.  Lia scowled heavily as Pyro burst into laughter.

"I was wondering how long it would take you to realize what I was doing," she said.  She turned and grinned at the boy.  Had he been standing, he felt that he would have backed away as quickly as his injuries would allow him to.

"Pyro…gah!…that's Kirsten"—Lia pointed towards the girl in the doorway with the wavy blond hair—"and that's Inad.  She wasn't in the accident.  Well…unless you count in her head."  Lia jerked her thumb in the direction of the muscular girl and rolled her eyes.

"And your name would be…" Inad inquired.

"Er…that is…" the boy stammered.  He looked down at his sheets again.

"_Inad_!"  The boy suddenly wondered why they all had such strange names.  Jack's had already been explained, he realized, but Inad and Pyro—wasn't that another word for someone obsessed with fire?

"I don't remember…"

Inad looked apologetic.  "Oops…"

"I know!" Lia said suddenly, massaging her bandaged arm.  "Zack!"

"Huh?" everyone asked.

"We'll call you Zack!"  Lia rounded on him, who started and winced as pain erupted pretty much everywhere on his body.

"That's a stupid name!" Pyro, Jack, and Kirsten burst out at once.

_Zack…?_ he thought.  _Hmmm…_

"Not really.  Think about it!  He's an _amnesiac_ until he gets his memory back, right?  And take of _amne_ and you get _siac_.  Okay, it's not Zack, but it's close enough."

_It makes sense,_ he agreed mentally.

"Well…it's a name," Inad agreed with a shrug.  "We can't go around saying, 'Hey, you!' for the rest of the day."

"Well, we could," Jack said.  "Nobody would understand who we were talking to, though."

"When are they going to let you guys out of here?" Inad asked after a small moment of silence.

"The evil nurses told me that we had to stay overnight to 'see if our conditions improved' or not.  Chris and Lia…I don't know."  Jack tugged on one of her orange strands as she said this.

"They said that I can go home—_but_ I can't drive.  The whole 'one-handed' thing doesn't appeal to them, I guess.  Plus, we don't have enough space in my car."

"Um…Lia?"  Pyro shifted in her chair.

"Huh?"

"Your car is in the shop—remember?  You crashed it into a tree."

Inad exploded with renewed fury.  "You crashed it into a _tree_?!"

Lia let out a noise that sounded like, "Meep!"

'Zack' felt the corners of his lips twitch into a smile, but managed to keep it in check.

"Yeah…you nearly killed me!"  Kirsten was back in the argument again. 

"You were the only one who wasn't hurt!" Jack protested.

"Nuh-uh—what about you?"

Jack made a face that plainly read "duh!" and pointed to the cut on her forehead.

"What's up with your arm, anyway?" Inad asked, nodding her head towards Lia's arm.

Lia screwed up her face and rubbed her left arm sympathetically.  "Evidently, the window shattered and cut open my arm.  Unfortunately, it also cut open the muscle, so I won't be swimming—or doing any sport, for that matter—for a while."  She turned to Chris so quickly that everyone jumped.  "Happy?  Huh?"

"Not very," Chris commented.  "Either way, I'm in a wheelchair slash crutches for the next year—NOT IN THE WATER!"

Jack and Pyro began to mouth the word "OBSESSIVE!" to each other.  Obviously, thy were more aware of each other's thoughts than the others.

Zack jumped again when Inad smacked the back of Lia's head.  "And you _still_ nearly killed Kirsten!"

Jack, Chris, Pyro, and Lia yelled out in unison, "Give it a break!"  The only one not part of the group was Pyro, who yelled, "Chill!"

"She came closer to—"  Someone outside the room knocked on the door and began to open it.

"Hide!" Inad hissed, and all of the teens who were standing—or sitting, in Pyro's case—leapt behind the divider that partially hid Zack's bed from view.

~&~

Ron rubbed his hand over Hermione's back in an attempt to ease her sobbing.  The police had said that it would take them a while to find out where Harry was, since the only description of the accident was what the car looked like and that it had hit a tree.  No hospitals had Harry's name on their patient roster.  Dumbledore hadn't returned Hedwig with a reply to Ron and Hermione's frantic letter.

"They'll find him," he said, more to convince himself than to comfort Hermione.

"Ron…" he felt her turn to look at him.  She looked up at him, her splotched, red face very close to his, and he felt the sudden urge to…

He shook himself mentally.  _What would Harry say if he came back and Hermione no longer liked him the way she did?_

"What if they don't?" she continued, tears beginning to drip down her face once more.  "What if You-Know-Who got him?"

Ron didn't reply.  "We'll find him…and if we don't—I don't know, Hermione.  I just don't know…"

~&~

"Well, Chris, the doctor says that we need to take one last x-ray before deciding when to let you go.  Come along—into the wheelchair."

_Damn wheelchair,_ Chris thought bitterly as the nurse gently pulled his bad leg out of the suspended sling.  _Damn nurses, damn Lia's brother's car…damn Louis for even lending it to her in the first place!_  He suddenly smiled wickedly.  _Yeeess…Louis' car…_  He glanced over at Lia's face among the five heads that poked tentatively out from behind the dividing curtain.  _This is going to be interesting…_ **[Pyro: Evilness towards Lia…fun…]**

~&~

Inad watched Chris' facial expression change from anger to an evil grin.  Realizing that he was looking at Lia, she wondered curiously what he was thinking.  _Don't tell me that the tables have turned,_ she thought, and grinned as well.  _This'll be fun…_

**[Pyro: what do you mean, 'tables have turned'?  What tables?  Are they round?]**

**[AVM: No more ice cream for you before betaing…]**

~&~

Pyro watched the domino effect of evil grins appear on all faces but Lia's and Zack's.  _What is going on?_ she wondered.  When the door snapped shut, Pyro was the first standing to check that no one was coming down the hall.

"What was that evil-grin thing all about?" she asked, glancing between Jack, Kirsten, and Inad.

"That's what I would like to know," Lia agreed.  The three teens looked between each other and giggled.

"Oh, nothing," Inad said, smiling innocently at Lia.

"Not really," Kirsten agreed, nodding.

"Just remembering what happened last year," Jack concluded.

Pyro glanced at the closed door, and then to Lia.  _Chris…Lia…last year…_  "Oh…" Pyro said.  "Oh!"  Now she was laughing.

"What happened last year?" Zack asked.  Pyro laughed even harder as she watched Lia hide her face in her hands—or at least attempt to, anyway.  Since she couldn't bring her left arm up, over half of her face was still visible and turning bright red.

"You guys are so mean," she whined.

"I don't get it," Zack said.  Lia had been right—he _did_ have a British accent.

Pyro grinned.  "That's okay.  You probably won't get a lot of things that we say for a long time."

"Not this decade, anyway," Jack added.

"Or the next."

"Maybe not even the one after that."  Pyro grinned again at the expression on Zack's face and decided to take a little mercy on him.  "We're kidding…don't' worry; we do that a _lot_."

A muffled noise that sounded like sniggering came from Lia's face.

"Oh, hush," Kirsten said, slapping her lightly on the left arm.  Lia gasped and pulled it away before she could do it again.

"Mind the arm, would you?"

"Sorry, Lia."

"You know," Jack said suddenly, "I'm thinking it might be a good idea to head back to our rooms about now."

"Why?" Pyro asked.  She didn't see any other reason apart from the fact that it was nearly noon.  "Hang on…when is lunch?"

"Exactly.  Let's just…walk on."

"I don't know about you, but I don't plan on eating anything from this lousy excuse for a hospital!" Pyro joked with a grin.

"Bye," Zack said, looking slightly sad.

Lia mumbled something under her breath and went to the door.  After looking both ways, she said, "Okay…the coast is clear."

Pyro crept out after her, looking both ways as well.  "Our room is over that way," she said, pointing to the right.

"Oh, yeah?" Lia hissed, sounding competitive.  "Ours is that way."  She pointed down the hallway to the left.

"Oh yeah?  Well, I'm the beta reader.  I win."

Lia glared, then said, "Fine.  Have fun with the crazy twins." **[A/N:** **no, they're not really twins.]**

Pyro looked to the two giggling teens beside her and groaned.

"Adios."

"Jack, you said it wrong."

"Fine.  À bientôt, then."

Pyro turned and scurried down the hallway, Kirsten and Inad hot on her heels.  "I really hope we don't get caught," Kirsten noted absently as they turned the corner.  "They might decide to keep us here a bit longer."

"No.  Technically they can't detain you just for sneaking out.  They can, however, give you hospital detention.  I've heard about it from my mom—she's a nurse, remember?—and how horrible it is."

"Really?" asked Inad.

"Yup."

Pyro was glad that her two very gullible friends couldn't see the smirk on her face.

~&~

"This thing sends out how much radiation?" Chris poked at the large and heavy vest that he wore with one finger.  He found out the hard way that it didn't make his finger feel too good.

"Enough," the doctor said.  "Now, I'll be standing right out here.  If you start to get scared—"

"I'm fifteen, not five," Chris said, irritated.

The doctor nodded.  "So you are.  I normally work with children, though."

_Do I _look_ like a child?_ Chris thought.

As the doctor went behind the wall she had pointed out earlier, Chris looked around the small room.  The walls were white.  The tiles on the ground were white.  The lab coats on the white plastic hooks on the wall were white.

_Are they trying to make people go insane?_ he wondered incredulously.  _That would explain why most nurses and doctors retire early.  You know, they never say why they retire.  They pretend it's 'cuz they have enough money to, but I've discovered the truth: thy really go insane and have to be locked up in mental wards with white rubber walls and white speakers that other, not-so-insane doctors talk to them through.  Ah ha ha ha he he!!!_

A strange mix between a buzzing noise and high-pitched clicks filled the room and made him want to cover his ears.

"Okay!  Now we'll wait for the x-ray to come back from the—"

"When do I get to swim again?" Chris interrupted.

"That depends on how fast you heal, Christopher."

Chris felt like he could have picked up the chair his leg was resting on and thrown it across the room at the doctor.  He didn't like the use of his full name; he had stopped using it in the fifth grade.  He didn't like that he wasn't being told anything.  He didn't like—

"That was fast."  The doctor's voice broke the momentary silence as though it were glass.  Chris looked up and saw that a young girl in a candy-striper outfit was handing an envelope to the doctor, who proceeded to open it and put the film on the light box.  Chris glanced at the girl, who winked at him before she left.  Chris was confused.

"Well!"  Chris jumped and swore out loud when his leg banged against the chair.  The doctor gave him a stern look (which the patient ignored), and glanced back at the x-ray.  "You're healing quicker than normal.  The swelling has also gone down enough that we can put a proper cast on it."

"And I'll be swimming when…?"

"If your leg continues to heal at this rate…between six and eight months."

_Lia…_ Chris growled in his head.  _That's not fast enough, dammit!_

"By the way: why is there a pink hair elastic in your hair?"

Chris' hand flew up to one of the short curls that had felt heavier than the rest for a while.  Sure enough, something was wrapped around it.  He pulled it off, and saw that it was not only pink, but bright pink.

_Pink…?_

_Inad._

~&~

"Necklace…necklace…where is my necklace?  Oh, there it is…watch…watch…"

"Lia, you can't wear your watch."

"Why?  It's _my_ watch!"

"YOU HAVE A BANDAGE OVER YOUR WRIST, STUPID!"  Jack sighed, frustrated, and tucked an orange strand behind her ear.

"I keep forgetting about that…"

"Lia, you're an idiot."

"Thank you."

"You're welcome."

A knock came from the door.  "It's Chris and Zack.  Can we come in, or would we need to gouge out our eyes?"

"I take that as a personal insult!" Lia cried.

Jack closed her eyes and shook her head.  "Chris, you're asking for it."

The door opened to the sound of Chris chuckling.

"Ahh," Jack said half-heartedly.  "Help.  Rape."

Chris responded in his regular fashion.  "Quit touching my breasts!"

"Shut it," Lia said, stuffing the last of the stuff she couldn't wear into her bag and pulling it over her right shoulder.  "I feel lopsided now."

"Skyview-itis," Chris commented. **[A/N: for those who are curious, skyviewitis is a common condition at my school.  Everyone with a regular two shoulder backpack has a tendency to lean forward because our school is wealthy enough to afford all this 'expensive' computer equipment, yet too poor to afford decent lockers.  Those who have shoulder bags like me…we lean forward and to the right/left.  It's quite humorous, actually.]**

"How do you know about that?" Lia asked.

"Pyro."

"Ahh."  Lia let her bag fall off her shoulder and sit in the crook of her arm.  "Is the taxi here yet?"

"Probably not.  Anyw—" Lia shot Jack a look.  "Any_way_, how did you manage to get a Kelso taxi company to drive all the way to Seattle and back?"

"I wriggled my fingers and said a magic word," Lia said impishly.

_Right,_ Jack thought, rolling her eyes.  _I don't even _want_ to know._

"Is that far away from here?" Zack asked.  Jack noted that he was squinting slightly, as though he couldn't see them correctly.

"Three, maybe four hours."

"What?" Chris exclaimed.  "Seven of us in one of those things?  And with Lia's arm and my leg?!"  He tapped his crutch lightly against the crisp white cast.

"How do you think Inad got here?  By donkey?"

**[Pyro: Donkey donkey have nice teeth…"ye be a pretty wench" "who?  Donkey?!"]**

**[AVM: Like I said, no more ice cream…]**

"She _drove_?"

"Yesss, Chris…she _does_ have a driver's license, you know."  Chris grumbled about not saying so in the first place.  "Just because _you're_ not old enough to have your license yet, Chris, doesn't mean _we_ don't have them."

**[Pyro: Chris is younger than everyone, _and_ the only male in a group of females…is he gay?  How do they all know him if he's younger?  These are the mysteries…]**

**[AVM: SHUT UP, ALREADY!!!  I GET YOUR STINKIN' POINT!!!]**

After about ten more minutes of watching Lia and Chris throw insults back and forth, she decided to take matters into her own hands and left the room.

"Lobby…lobby," Jack muttered to herself as she walked.  One of the nurses turned onto the hallway and upon seeing her, he headed right towards her.

_Crap, a male nurse,_ Jack thought, gritting her teeth.  _Now what?_

"Visitor hours are from eight to eleven and one to four-thirty, Miss.  You shouldn't even be up here."

"I'm a patient; trust me, I'm allowed to be up here," Jack answered, irritated.  _Evil,_ she thought.  _They're _all_ evil!_

"Well, then, you're supposed to be in your room."  He grabbed her arm and started to pull her back down the hallway after a glance at her ID bracelet.  "Now, Jessica—"

"Okay," Jack said, her cheeks reddening at the improper pronunciation of her full name.  "First of all, it's Jess-AH-kuh, not Jessica.  Second of all, my cab should be here.  I'm go to go check out now, if you'll excuse me."

"Sorry.  Just trying to do my job."

Jack wrenched her elbow out of his grasp.  _Go do your "job" elsewhere, then._

As they parted ways, Jack heard the nurse say, "It must be her 'time of the month'."

_Asshole!_

~&~

Pyro had had enough.

"Will you two _stop_?!" she yelled.  Inad and Kirsten stopped in mid-giggle.

"Stop what?" Inad asked.  Pyro jabbed at her head with her forefinger a few times.

"But we _like_ talking in our heads," Kirsten said aloud, grinning.  Inad nodded her head in agreement and promptly giggled.

Pyro looked up at the ceiling and mouthed the words, "Help me!"

~&~

Chris resisted the strong urge to take his crutches and throw it at Zack.  The boy was being much too quiet, saying few words when he said anything at all.  He could tell by the look on Lia's face that it was making her edgy as well.  Especially since she was a very talkative person.

"So how _did_ you get a Kelso taxi to drive to Seattle?"

Lia's face reddened and she coughed slightly.

"Well…um…the owner happens to be…well…"

"Don't tell me that it's Sam's father!" Chris groaned, remembering Lia's last boyfriend.

"Actually—and thankfully!—no.  He's one of those guys who will flirt over the phone with any girl that will hold still long enough, so I kinda…flirted back…"

Chris had an image of Lia sitting in a chair by a phone, twirling one of her curls around a finger and flirting outrageously with a forty-some-year-old-man who probably weighed over two hundred pounds.  "Lia!"

She giggled slightly and blushed even redder.  "He was under the assumption that I was in my twenties."

"Off by about ten years!  You never could do math…"

Lia grabbed the hood of her sweatshirt and pulled it over her head, shoved her hair over her face, and looked down at her knees.  Chris began to snigger.  He had never seen Lia _this_ embarrassed before.

A muffled, "Shut up," came from her direction, sending Chris into a fit of laughter, which made him almost fall over.

"Can't you see that you're embarrassing her?" Zack's voice asked.  Chris jumped and swore loudly for the second time that day as his cast banged against the floor.

"It's okay," Lia said through her hair.  "We do this all the time."

"What, make jokes until you want to sink into the floor?"  Chris gaped at Zack in surprise and saw that he wore a look of seriousness that no teenager ever was able to obtain—at least, not in America.

"Wow, you really _are_ British.  And she doesn't get embarrassed easily, so it's really funny when she does."

"Everyone pick on Lia," she said.

_Uh-oh,_ Chris thought.  _She's talking in the third person…_

"Just like this morning when Jack—"  She stopped abruptly.  "I'll be leaving now."

"No," Chris said, putting out his hand (and nearly falling over) to stop her from leaving.  "What did Jack do?"

"Nothing," Lia said a little too quickly.  She looked up, her face still pink, her eyes a deep green.

_Oh, shit!_ Chris thought.  _She's either going to cry or get _really_ angry right about now._

As it turned out, Lia had time to do neither, because the door opened and Jack stuck her head in, a malicious grin on her face.

"What are you being so evil about now?" Chris asked, mildly curious.

"Inad and Kirsten are driving Pyro crazy, and it's absolutely hilarious.  Oh, and the cab's here.

~&~

Hermione wrapped her arms around Ron's waist and sighed deeply.  "What do you think he's thinking about right now?" she asked, her voice wavering a bit.

"Probably where he is, or what we're doing," Ron answered.  He tensed as Hermione placed her head on his chest.  _She's his,_ he thought fiercely.  _No matter your feelings, she's his._  An evil little voice in his head suggested that Harry was gone, though.  Ron pushed the thought violently away, instead visioning the look on Harry's if he came back and discovered Hermione no longer loved him the way she had.

If he came back.

~&~

"Let's try this again: Kirsten, Zack, and me in the cab, and everyone else goes with Inad."

"But _I_ want to be with Inad!"

"Kirsten, you'll drive them all crazy."

"I don't care!"

"For Pete's sake Pyro, put them together!"

"Who's Pete?  And why should I torture my friend's for his sake?  And why am I even in charge of the seating arrangement?  And if I _am_ in charge of it, how come you keep arguing my decisions?  And—"

"Shut up, Pyro," Jack cut in.  Pyro held up three fingers towards her; Jack returned the gesture.  "You're in charge because you took charge."

"So now you're blaming it on me?"

"Yeah, pretty much."

Zack leaned into the wheelchair he was sitting in and watched the six friends argue.

Pyro tugged on the blue part of her hair and thought again.

"Why not let Jack drive her car," Zack found himself saying, "Inad, Kirsten, and I can take the…cab"—the word didn't feel right coming from him—"and Pyro, Chris, and Lia can go with Jack."

Lia gave him a sympathetic look.  "Are you sure you want to sit with those two maniacs all the way back to Vancouver?"

"I don't mind," Zack answered.  "It'll give me time to think."

"What if they drive him crazy?" Jack asked, nodding her head in the direction of the cabbie, who belched loudly at that moment.

"Maniacs, Lia?" Kirsten said, her eyebrows arched.  "You think we're maniacs?!"

"Would you prefer psychopaths?"

"Maniacs is fine," Inad said.

"I'm about te start chargin' by the minute," the cabbie interrupted, checking his watch.  "An' I have the feelin' yer parent's wouldn't 'preciate ya spendin' their money."

"Inad, gimme the keys," Jack said quickly.

"How about we give them to Pyro?" Lia suggested.  "She doesn't drive like your mother.

"Are you suggesting—"

"Here, Jack," Inad said, throwing her three keys attached to about twenty key chains, including (but not limited to) three small fuzzy (and pink) cows, two little red trucks (which matched Inad's), and perhaps seven different flavors of chaptstick.  Jack caught it by one of the pink cows **[A/N: I just realized how redic redick stupid that is, since it would look like a pig!]** and ran off towards the truck, quickly followed by Pyro, Lia (who ran lopsidedly) and a hobbling Chris.  Zack watched them pile into the car (Chris and Lia bickered over who sat where in the back before Jack yelled something out the window.  They practically leapt in after that), and then turned back to the cab.

"Okay.  You get the front, Zack," Inad said, and started to push the wheelchair towards the passenger door.  Something on the side caught Zack's eye, so he turned his head to look at it.

Owl taxi.

Why did that seem so familiar?

_//Hundreds of graceful birds flew through the windows, flooding the open hall.  Each one searched for its master, bearing its package or letter with pride.  His own Hedwig soared down to him, a letter clamped tight in her beak._\\

"Hedwig," Zack said.

"What?" Inad said, stopping so suddenly that Zack was jolted.

"Hedwig.  My pet…"

Kirsten and Inad kneeled down in front of him, as though he were a young child having woken up from a bad dream.

"Hedwig?"

"What kind of pet?"

"Everyone in the cab!" the man yelled, leaning on the horn at the same time.

Their sympathetic, curious expressions turned to ones of anger at the cabbie's impatience; Kirsten pulled the door open so hard that Zack thought it would come off its hinges, and Inad practically dumped him in.  Zack found the seats relatively comfortable, though a rank odor came from them.  _I'm keeping the window open,_ he thought.

Inad's truck roared to life, causing Zack to jump.  The cab followed suit (though at a lower volume), and they were off, first out of the parking lot, and then on their way out of Seattle.

~&~

"Stop at the Burger King over there, would you?" Pyro asked, pointing with her good hand at the restaurant.

"Sure," Jack answered.  "I was getting hungry anyways.  And I could use a break.  How 'bout you two back there?  You've been awfully quiet."

"Jack—shh!  Look!"  Pyro jabbed her painfully in the ribs.  Jack pulled into the lot and parked the car in an empty spot near the entrance.  After turning the key in the ignition to stop the motor, she pivoted to look at Lia and Chris.

"Aww…good thing they're not awake; it would spoil the moment entirely."

"Get the camera!" Pyro whispered, excited.  Jack bent over the back of the seat, rummaging around for Lia's bag.  She found it and pulled it back over the seat.

"Let's see…"  She unzipped it and began to go through it.  "The Notebook, Lia's diary—Pyro, put that down.  We don't go through your diary," Jack said as the black-and-blue haired teen opened the front cover.

"Just wanted to see what she's said about Chris from last year," Pyro said innocently.

"Uh-huh…"

"Oh, shut up.  You know that you're curious too!"  Pyro made a move to flip to the latest entry, but found the little book gone from her hands and hastily stuffed into the bottom of the bag.

Jack found the camera five minutes later in one of the side pockets on the bag and turned around again.

Chris' leg had been propped up to the side on the floor by his jacket and Lia's swimming sweatshirt.  He was leaning against the car door.  Lia was up against him, her left arm resting on top of his right.  Her head had tried, obviously, to rest on his shoulder, but because he was so tall, it ended up leaning against his upper arm.  A few of the markers that had been in her hands from when she had been drawing little multi-colored sheep all over his cast had fallen from her nimble fingers.

"You know what would be really funny?  If we opened the car door…" Pyro said with a devilish smile.

"Oh!" Jack whimpered.  "You're so mean!"

"She'll kill us if we take the picture," Pyro said with an evil grin.

"But we could use it for blackmail!"

"Then take it!"

Jack leaned back as far as she dared and pressed the shutter.  Once the flash went off, she tucked it back in its pouch and put it back where she found it.  Once again facing in the right direction, she wondered, _What would happen if someone happened to wake them up?_

Looking down at the steering wheel, she got the perfect idea.

"What do you say we have a bit of fun?" she said to Pyro, who grinned in agreement.

Jack leaned on the horn as hard as she could.

Okay!  That's Chapter Three!  In Ch. 4, we find out what horrible things Lia and Chris do to Pyro and Jack; plus: angry parents (Nova thinks that'll be really fun to write, and I agree!), three boyfriends (heeheehee!), and one extremely p*ssed off bro.  Should be ready to read by the eighth—if I'm not interrupted by something.  =)


	4. Chapter Four: Oh, Shit!

//…\\ means that it's a memory…

No one correctly guessed what the passage "Donkey donkey have nice teeth…" came from!  Well, except for Deity, but she got it wrong…New contest: Who is Nik based on?  This will be going on for a while, since we don't really know his character very well yet.  More info on him next chapter.

 Oh, yeah…I'd like to hold a moment of silence for the death of Richard Harris, who played Albus Dumbledore in the first two HP movies.

…

…

…

Thank you…now, onto the chapter.

**  Chapter Four-Oh, Shit!**

_"Yes, annoying people _is_ one of my many talents."  ~Lianne Christine Florence_

Kaori Hirashi sighed as she regarded her newest masterpiece that lay on her lap.  Fiddling with the pencil that protruded in between her index and middle fingers on her right hand, she wondered what she could add next to the drawing that would finish it.

"A few more leaves on the tree?  Or a branch on the hood of the car?" she wondered aloud.  Instead she drew a leaf fluttering down, slow in its course, but steady on the position of a young teenage girl.  Kaori imagined her to be pretty, though she seemed to be a bit too tall and thin, with shoulder length hair and pale skin dottedwith freckles.  And brown eyes…light brown eyes…

Kaori frowned and examined the girl slightly.  She seemed out of place, not really belonging in the picture.  The other two people—a girl who was perhaps a year or two older than the first, and an extremely cute boy, whose hair she imagined rivaled the redness of the girl's—fit much better.  On top of that, she had a smile on her face, while the other two looked as though they had just lost their best friend.

Beside her, the phone leapt in its cradle as it rang.  Kaori sighed heavily and put down her pencil and proceeded to pick up the phone.

"Hello?"

"Kaori?"

Kaori grinned.  "Hey Baskin!  How've you been?  You having a good summer?"

"Yeah!" Baskin replied.  "I went up to Seattle to visit Jamaica in July.  Gol, that was fun!"

"Did you go boating?  Lia told me that the last time she visited her that they went boating."

Baskin snickered.  "She got tossed!"

Kaori laughed.  "Oh, poor Jama…speaking of Seattle and Lia, isn't she up there right now?  With Jack, I believe."  She sighed.  "I wish they'd brought me along."

She could hear Baskin's sharp intake of breath as though she were right beside her.

"What is it?"

"About Lia and Jack…"

~&~

_I don't see why Mother said that this book would be difficult to read,_ Samantha thought to herself as she turned the page of Moby Dick.  _Some of the language is confusing, but the storyline makes itself clear._  She looked up at the neighboring house as a loud scream of terror came from it.

"Oh shit!  She did _what_?!"

_Stupid teenagers,_ the ten-year-old thought to herself.  _All they care about is their hair and who's going out with whom._

~&~

_~You ask him.~_

_~No, _you_ ask him!~_

_~You thought of it first.~_

_~So?  You thought it was a good idea!~_

_~That doesn't mean that I have to ask him.~_

_~Inad—~_

_~Don't you 'Inad' me!~_

_~But Inad—~_

_~Kirsten, _you_ should ask!~_

_~But he's scary looking!~_

_~You wanted to stop.  Look—we're just about to pass it!~_

_~Tell Zack to.~_

_~_You_ tell Zack to!~_

_~Fine.  Be that way.  But I'm not giving you any if he says yes.~_  Kirsten tapped Zack on the shoulder, who jumped slightly and then turned to look at her.

"Yes?"

Kirsten leaned close to him until her lips were a few inches away from the amnesiac's ear.  "Would you please ask him to pull over at the gas station over there?"

"Why don't you?"

"Because he's scary…he'll snarl and bite me if I do it, but you're a fellow guy—he won't be mean to you."

"Why do you want to stop anyway?  Aren't we nearly there?"

"No, actually—and besides, they stopped at the Burger King back there."  Zack sighed loudly and turned back around to face the cabbie.

"Kirsten and Inad want to know if we can stop at the gas station."

"Didn't we just stop ten minutes ago?"

Zack turned to look at the girls.  Kirsten waved her hands, a sign to keep going.

"No.  The other group did, though."

The cabbie appeared to be thinking.  After peering at the dashboard to see his gas gauge, he said, "I don't think it'll hurt.  'Sides, we need a bit of gas, 'neways."

_~Yay!~_

_~Should we use your money or mine?~_

_~How much you got?~_

_~Uhh…~_ Inad opened up her wallet and peeked in.  _~Looks like about ten bucks or so.~_

_~I've got a five—wait, and two ones.  How did those get there?~_

_~You put them there.~_

_~Nuh-uh.  I would've remembered putting them in my back pocket!~_

_~Whatever.  They don't cost that much.  We'll use your two bucks.~_

_~'Kay.  What should we get for Zack?~_

_~Dunno.  We can bring him in too.  He can get what he wants.~_

_~I don't think he has any money, though!~_

_~Then he can wait out here.~_

_~Okay!~_

_~What do you think Jack, Pyro, Lia, and Chris are doing?~_

_~No idea…but I think they wouldn't like what we're about to do right now…~_  Both girls grinned evilly, and then laughed in each other's heads when Zack gave them a very confused and slightly scared look.

~&~

"_AAAAAAAAAAAAARUUG_!"  Pyro winced and covered her ears at the enormous noise from the two teens in the back seat of the truck.  Lia and Chris had jumped when the horn went off, taken a look at the position they were in, and yelled.  Lia's face was rapidly turning red as she attempted to yank her sweatshirt out from underneath Chris' foot to hide in.  She also used an extensive vocabulary of curse words that Pyro didn't even know existed, finally ending with one that she did: "_Jack, you bitch_!"  She looked around, probably trying to find one of Chris' crutches, and was dismayed to see that Pyro had them both in her hands.

"Lia, we don't use that word around here," Pyro said mock-sternly.

"What word?!"

"The—" she looked around to make sure no one was listening, "—B-I-T-C-H word."

"Bitca?" Chris murmured sleepily, confused.

They gave him a strange look.

Lia turned again to glare at Jack.  She chuckled in a very self-satisfied manner.  "Burger King, anyone?"

"Killing spree, anyone?" Lia mocked, clenching her good hand into a fist.  _Oh, shit,_ Pyro thought as Chris grabbed Lia's arm to prevent her from hurting Jack (which they all knew she was perfectly capable of—it wouldn't have been the first time, after all).

"I'm hungry," he said, as though this were the most natural thing to say while someone was being homicidal.

"You're _always_ hungry," Pyro told him.  "Let's save the killing of Jack and Pyro until after we've eaten, 'kay?"

Lia grumbled something that involved a few choice curse words.  Chris let out a long whistle and opened the door.

Within fifteen minutes, the four had ordered their meals and were quietly munching on their sandwiches (or, in Jack's case, chicken fingers).

**[VWW: Not even in an alternate universe does she order something different.  How sad is that?!  ~*dodges Jessica's fist*~]**

**[Nova: but doesn't notice her other fist til it hits her square on the nose.]**

Lia was still cursing under her breath.  A few of the people sitting by them had thrown her very startled looks.  One couple with three very young children looked quite offended and picked up their meals to eat elsewhere.

"You're scaring people," Chris told her lightly.

Lia told him to do something that made Pyro stuff her sandwich in her mouth to stifle what would have been a roar of laughter.

"Nice, Lia," Jack told her, throwing a French fry at her.  Lia caught it and flicked it back.

Pyro leaned over and stole one of Chris' French fries ("Hey!") and aimed for Jack's forehead.

"Hey, that was my nose!"

Lia giggled and picked up a handful of Chris' French fries and lobbed them at Jack.  She managed to dump over her Root Beer at the same time, spilling the soda all over the table.  Most of it went over the side, though some of it hit Jack.

"Abandon shit!" Lia hissed, getting up in a hurry to avoid getting her cast wet.  She dragged Chris away, who was still whining about having his French fries stolen.  **[A/N: yes, that's supposed to be 'abandon shit'.  Not 'abandon ship'.]  **Pyro sniggered at Jack, who was livid with anger, and glanced at the other patrons in the restaurant.  They were all staring.  Pyro chose to ignore them and looked at one of the workers who was quickly approaching them.

_Oh, shit,_ she thought.  _We're in for it now…_

~&~

**[VWW: just to let y'all know, Nova the terrific beta-er wrote this section.  Kudos to her.]**

"Teri, calm down.  I'm sure Lia just forgot to call."

"Yes, maybe… but I always thought that Kirsten would be responsible enough to remind her…"

"Well, worrying won't help.  Why don't you call her cell?"

"I already tried!  It just says, 'We're sorry, you call did not go through.  Will you please try your call again.' "

"Maybe the battery is dead."

"Maybe… hold on; someone's on the other line… hello?

"Teri?"

"Yes, may I ask who this is?"

"It's Kat.  Has Lia called you recently?"

"No, I was just wondering about that.  She hasn't called yet at all."

"I know why…"

~&~

The gurgling of four milkshakes being drained from their respective cups caused various patrons of a Burger King somewhere between Seattle and Vancouver to turn their heads and glare.

**[Nova and VWW: Washington, stupid people!  Not Canadia!!!]**

**[VWW: DARN THOSE CANADIANS!!!  No offense…]**

**[Nova: And you get offended when people diss them.  *sigh*]**

**[VWW: Noooo…I get offended when people say I'm Canadian.  There's a difference.]**

**[Nova: Maybe later you can tell me what it is.]**

Lia glared at Jack.  Jack glared at Lia.  Chris watched them.  Pyro threw a French fry at Jack, aiming for her shoulder.

"Ouch!  That was my eye!  Your aim is terrible…"  Jack had had much experience with her best friend's abilities to hit her target, sometimes at the expense of the eyesight in her left eye.

**[Jack: True, true…]**

Lia flicked her hair with a slight toss of her head and turned to Pyro.  "You interrupted our staring contest."

"So sorry."

Jack scoffed.  "Liar.  You're never sorry!"

"I am too!  I'm sorry about a lot of things!"

"Name one," Chris said, shaking a French fry in her direction.

"I'm sorry that your mother taped over that episode of _Angel_ last—"  Pyro never finished her sentence, for the other three teens had yelled and started throwing French fries at her again.

~&~

[A/N: just to let you know, I know that a pawn can't really checkmate a king.  That's why there's that king (or whatever…use your imagination) behind the pawn that could easily take out the king, were it to move into place.  But, it's not really checkmate, as you'll soon find out…]

"Checkmate," Ron said, moving his pawn into place in front of Ginny's king.  Ginny's eyes roamed over the board, trying to see if his accusation was true.

"No, it's not," she said, and simply moved her queen four places to the right, taking out the offending piece.  Ron frowned angrily and hit the board, causing chess pieces to go flying.  Ginny sat defiantly in front of her older brother, practically daring him to do something.  Then, as her eyes filled with tears, she picked up the pieces one by one and placed them in their positions.

"If you had paid attention, you would have noticed that if you'd moved your castle to where my queen was, you _would_ have won."  Instead of finishing what she started, she rose from her chair and fled the room, her shoulders shaking with grief.  Ron sighed and covered his face with his hands.

_I can't even concentrate on something as simple as chess,_ he thought, moving the board to a safe place and getting up from the kitchen table.  _We might as well go home.  This vacation is ruined.  Ruined by something like the disappearance of a friend._

Just then, Mrs. Granger came back inside the little apartment.

"They found Harry," she said morosely.

"What?!" Ron yelled, tripping over his feet and landing on the floor.  Ginny and Hermione stuck their heads into the room so fast that Ron thought they would get whiplash.

"They found Harry, and then lost him.  He was at St. Christopher Memorial Hospital up until this morning."

"What happened to him?" Hermione asked tentatively.  "Did they send him home?"

"After they matched the description of him, they realized that he had already left with a group of Muggle teenagers.  All we have is the name of the girl who was driving the car."

"And?"

"There's no record of her living anywhere in the United States or Canada.  She doesn't exist."

**[VWW: ~*evil cackle*~]**

~&~

"Jack, d'you think I should call Kirsten and Inad to ask where they are?" Lia asked nearly two hours later as they passed the onramp for Longview.

"Dunno.  They could be back to Vancouver by now."

"I think she should anyways," Chris said, pulling the earphone to his portable CD player out of his left ear.  Lia glared at him for the improper pronunciation of the word _anyway_, but otherwise ignored it.

[Nova: Why does Chris get special treatment?  Anyone else would get hurt, or reprimanded!]

**[VWW: Because Lia is feeling nice at the moment?  I dunno!  Ask her!]**

"I think so too.  God only knows what damage they've done to poor Zack."

"Why did we even bring him anyway?" Lia asked.  "I mean, we nearly killed the poor guy!"

"_You_ nearly killed the poor guy," Chris pointed out.  Lia glared at him again.

"Because he would have to go to an orphanage, or something.  And that would suck."

"Actually, that's a very good point."

"But where will he stay?"

"Not my place—no room.  Well, unless Louis and Justin room up.  And they wouldn't want to do that—not for me, in any case."

"I told you you shouldn't have hit them so hard and often with books."  Lia gave Pyro a flat, unfriendly stare.

**[Nova: Or phones, or calculators…]**

[VWW: I'll have you know that it was a remote control for the TV, not a calculator.  His cement head would break my calculator.]

"Matt moved out two days ago—that's why Mom wanted me out of the house.  I don't know why…"  Chris looked thoughtful for a moment.

"Well, let's see: could it be that the last time he tried to move out you attached yourself to his legs wailing pitifully?"  Jack gave him an evil grin.

**[Nova: Hah!  You are 178% mistaken: 'Chris' would love him to be gone!]**

**[VWW: Shh!  It's funnier this way…~*smiles sweetly to Chris*~]**

"You weren't supposed to talk about that!" Chris roared as Lia and Pyro burst out laughing.

"You did _what_?!" Pyro gasped out finally.  "That's too rich!"

Amazingly, Chris' face pinkened.  "He's my chauffer," he said simply with a shrug.

"If you were to get your permit—"

"I still wouldn't be able to drive for another six months!"

"Without a licensed adult in the car," Jack added, glancing in the mirror.

"Lia, call them," Chris said moodily.  Then he muttered, "First Matt, now the driving thing…what'll it be next?  The fact that I have no girlfriend?"

"Kirsten, Lia, and Baskin are single," Pyro said lightly.

"EWWWW!" Lia and Chris said in unison, scooting as far away as possible from each other.

_That's obviously not what they were thinking when they fell asleep,_ Jack thought, remembering the picture on Lia's camera.  She grinned as she watched Lia dial Kirsten's number.  What the teen didn't know was that her face was turning bright red, which was almost as funny as when she flipped out when she got embarrassed.  _Hehe…this is gonna be fun…_

"I don't believe it," Pyro said nearly fifteen minutes later as they pulled into a rest stop barely five miles from the offramp to Vancouver.  "I just don't believe it."  Sitting on a picnic bench near the bathrooms was Inad, Kirsten, and Zack; the latter of the three looked weary and forlorn while the two former had huge grins on their faces.  Jack stopped the truck in front of them and rolled down her window.  Lia did the same and stuck her head out.

"Exactly why are you sitting here without the cabbie?" Jack asked.

Kirsten and Inad giggled.

"Oh, jeez; what did you do?!" Lia demanded.  She attempted to keep a grin off of her face.

Giggle.  "We bought Skittles!"

Lia turned to Zack, her eyebrows raised in humor.  "You let them buy _Skittles_?!  Are you _insane_?!"

"I didn't know!" Zack protested, throwing his arms out in defense.

Lia looked as though she was trying hard not to laugh.  Chris let out a small snort.  Pyro sighed.

"Get in the back of the truck," Jack said wearily.

"Why not in the front?"

"Not enough room."

"It's my truck!  I say you four sit in the back!"

"You haven't passed your six month time limit yet, stupid.  You can't drive other people around!"

"Lia did!"

"Lia's irresponsible."

Lia glared at Jack.  "Thank you."

"You're welcome.  Now in the back, you three."

"I still say—"

"I'm still driving."

"Isn't that illegal?" Lia asked suddenly.  "Riding in the back of a truck?"

"We'll rope 'em down."

"_Jack_!" Lia, Kirsten, Inad, and Chris yelled.  Zack stared.  Pyro nodded in agreement and giggled.****

"What?!"

Lia sighed and shook her head.  "We'll squish in and double buckle; Zack's small enough that if he, Inad, Kirsten, and I sit back here, we'll all fit."

"What about me?" Chris asked.

"You can sit up front with Pyro."

"Says who?" Pyro interjected.

"Me."

"There won't be enough room for his damn leg!"

"Damn _your_ leg!" Chris shot at her.

"No, thank you," Pyro said, and turned back to Lia.

"I don't know about you," Zack interrupted, "but I'm starting to get a little hungry."

"We already ate," Lia said simply.

"We ate Skittles," Inad said impishly.

"Yes, you did," Pyro noted absently.

"_And_ they didn't share," Zack announced.  They all turned to stare at him.

"This is the most you've said the entire time we've known you!" Lia said.  "Thank God," she noted.  "I was afraid that I was going to have to corrupt you in order to get you talking!"

"You three: get in the car before I make you!  Chris: front seat!  Pyro: scoot over!"

"Eww…sophomore germs…"

"You were a sophomore last year, stupid.  He's not going to kill you."

"And he's a boy."

"One who 'switched teams'."

"I did _not_ 'switch teams'!"

"Explain why you hang out with all girls, then."

"Because…you're all my friends!"

"What about Nik, Roman, Daniel, Michael, Louis, Mike—"

"Okay, okay!  I get your point.  But you're all my friends too!"

"_In_ the car!" Jack yelled.

"Truck," Inad corrected, opening the door and helping Chris to hobble over to the front door.

"Whatever!"

"Hey Chris: just say no to crack."

**[VWW: Don't ask…just don't ask…]**

The rest of the ride home was relatively quiet.  Zack had separated Kirsten and Inad, since he and Kirsten were the smallest of the seven.  They all agreed that Inad should sit on the far side of the truck from Kirsten as well.  It would stop them, at least, from speaking out loud.

When they finally pulled up to Jack's house, a small crowd had assembled outside of it.

"My parents, Chris' parents, Pyro's parents…oh shit…"  Everyone turned to look at Lia, who tried to squirm her way into the seat.  "You _did_ call from the hospital, didn't you?" Jack asked.

"Umm…I thought you did?"

"LIA!!"

"What's that big shiny thing that…is that _Therese_?!"

"Crap…Nik and Daniel are here…"

"Nik's here?" Pyro asked, straining her neck to see.  Indeed, the boy was leaning up against the tree in Jack's yard, his longish hair hiding his face from view.

**[VWW: okay, okay…he's not really much of a boy…too hot, in fact…first person who names the guy Nik is based on gets a surprise…]**

"Is it just me, or does it look like Nik's holding a baseball bat?"

"Nah, I think it's just a really big club."

"Or a really big and heavy stick…"

"Oh shit!" Lia squeaked, and tried to hide behind the front seat.

"LIANNE CHRISTINE FLORANCE!" a voice roared from the yard.  "HOW DAR YOU KEEP US WORRIED LIKE THAT ABOUT YOUR SAFETY?  AND WHERE IS YOUR BROTHER'S CAR?!"

Lia made some noises that sounded like a frightened mouse running from a large cat.

"YOU'RE PAYING FOR THE NEXT CENTURY, LIA!" Louis' voice roared.

"Dammit," Lia murmured.  And then, "It was an accident!"  She got out of the car, causing Inad to fall over and start gibbering.  Roman walked over to the truck, pushing past Lia so that they bumped shoulders, and helped her up.  "Zack ran in front of the car, and I couldn't stop!"

"You _hit_ someone?!"

"_And_ you hurt my girlfriend?!"

"Daniel, I'm the one with the cast on my arm!  She's got a scratch on her forehead!"

"Inad," Therese said, hefting a large and very sharp looking axe in her hands.  "I have a little gift for you…"

Inad looked up from her embrace with Roman.  "Axe?" she said confusedly.  

**[Nova: Oh my gosh…AN AXE?!  SCARY…NO axes.  Bats, maybe butter knives.  We don't want any deaths.]**

**[VWW: Who said there were going to be deaths?  Well, not this early in the story.  And not on Lia's part—she's one of my favorite characters.  ~*grins*~  The axe is staying.  Plus, Inad opted for it anyway.]**

Then, seeing Daniel, Louis, and Kaori lifting weapons of their own, she got the clue.  She ran to Therese, grabbed the axe from her arms, and began to sprint towards Lia.  Lia took off running away from her.

"SHIIIIIT!" she screamed.  Nik grinned at Kaori and Daniel, and then the three of them raced after Inad and Lia, yelling war cries and looking as though they were having the times of their lives.

~&~

Wormtail finished the note with a flourish, and then began to reread the letter to check for mistakes.  Grinning to himself with delight at his accomplishment, he tied it to the leg of the midnight-black owl that had been waiting patiently for him to finish.

"Master, the first step of your plan is complete," he announced as it flew off into the lightening sky.  "Dumbledore will know within the hour of the untimely death of Potter!"

Voldemort smiled to himself and crumpled the letter that was written in Ron's writing.  He threw it on the floor, next to the eerily still shape of Hedwig.

"The wizarding world will know of his defeat," he said.  "And then they will know the pain that he has caused me over the last fifteen years."  His lips curled into a cold, cruel smile.  "They will not live to see a day of happiness again."

Well, that was fun.  Next chapter: introductions to some new characters/explanations of the boyfriends, an interesting healing, swim practice, and someone who thinks they know the true identity of Zack.  Oh, and perhaps more of Voldemort's evil plan to take over London—I mean, the world.

Thank you for all your wonderful reviews!  

**Deity**: Nope!  It's not Shrek.

I'm proud to live in WA, but I'm not a Washingtonian.  I'm a VERY PROUD NY-ER!!! Hehehe…When the trio gets back together, it'll be explosive and fun…~*evil grin*~ But that's not for another…oh, seven to ten chapters or so.  ~*evil cackle*~

**Lucy-Liza**: Heh…yah, about that dating thing…Harry's oblivious to the whole thing, pretty much.  It'll all be explained in later chapters.  _Much_ later chapters…

So sorry that the dialogue is confusing.  Nova has already yelled at me for that (and the fact that I like to make up words…=)).  I'm glad that Zack is sticking just as well as Harry.  Everyone yelled at me when I chose his name, saying that it was stupid.  ~*gets a hurt look*~ I happen to like the name Zack…

**tringle**: so sorry that you don't like the bold print comments.  I happen to like them.  Though perhaps I _could_ do without some of them, such as the one concerning 'Chris' sexuality…~*shudders*~

I'm glad that you're anticipating the chapter so much.  ~*grins*~  I do think that you'll love the next one even more, though, since it's got a bit of fluff.  I know two girls at my school who will.  ~*coughKIRSTENINADcough*~

**slimshadyfreak**: WRONG VANCOUVER!!!  I once lived in Vancouver, Canada…BUT WE'RE TALKING ABOUT VANCOUVER, WA!!!!  The one that's, like, fifteen minutes from Portland (Oregon, not Maine…).  And what does "til den" mean?  Oh…wait…I get it…"till then".  Hah.  Funny…

**Beth Potter**: I know that feeling of laziness.  I use it all too much…and the fact that my computer is buggy and doesn't like to leave proper reviews either…

**Fireboltgirl830**: Thanks for the encouragement!

**Lavinia**: Oooh!  Hurt Hermione?!  I need to make sure that Nova doesn't read that—she'll take your suggestion up!!  ~*runs off to throw blanket over review*~

**OrangeStone**: Don't worry—I know what I'm doing.  It won't get boring with the Muggles—though there _will_ be some magical activity at the same time.  That's what Voldemort's there for—whoops, gave something away!  ~*evil grin*~

**tringle**: as Jack would say, "Hold your horses, person!" ~*SMACK!*~  But as I would say, "Sheesh, do you want it to be nice, long, and hilarious or short and stupid?  I need more time to have people be chased around by other people with sharp/heavy/dangerous objects!"

**Aleena Malfoy**: I'm glad you're enjoying the story.  I was just up in SEA/TAC for…ummm…almost three days for a swim competition.  It was fun (being in Seattle with 12 friends, not the meet—that was boring), but it did rain and was cold the whole time.  ~*shrugs*~ Oh, well.

I believe that I'm attracting a lot of Seattians(?) with the fact that they were there.  I'm hoping to gain a lot more with the Vancouverites (WASHINGTON!!!  Or Canada…either is nice.  More readers means more reviews =)) who read this.

Trust me—I will have fun.  And so will my friends, who are helping me to write this chapter.

By the way, I love your quotes.  ~*wink*~

**HERMIONE POTTER 5000**: It seems that you're another H/Hr. fan.  ~*grins*~  I'm glad that you love my writing so much.  And I'm also happy that you'll be reading.  I love more readers!

Thank you to anyone else I missed!


	5. Chapter Five: Eat, Sleep, Swim

**A/N**: As I read over the last chapter again, I noticed a few things:  One, I repeated the French fry scene.  ~*bashes self on head*~ Two: I made Nik chase after Lia with the other two girls.  It was supposed to be Roman.  So sorry!

Yes, I realize that the chapter took longer than anticipated to come out, but give me a break: it's seventeen pages!  Actually, it _was_ something like twenty-five…my betaer and Jack convinced me that it would be better to split it into two parts, which is why some things that were mentioned to be in this chapter are not.  They are, however, in chapter six.

**D/C**:  This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books, and Warner Bros., Inc.  No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.

[Insert long list of names here that's actually at the bottom of the page at this moment]are based upon actual people, but their names have been changed to protect the actual persons from a life of fame and wealth (hah!  You wish…).

"Talking inside of each other's heads" was made up by the real Kirsten and Inad.  They came up with it last year.  I have yet to figure out whether they actually do it or not.  Inad was doing it the other day at my house, and it was quite scary…~*shudders*~

The majority of the comments in this story actually came from the people that are said to have said them.  A few were added by me, but I won't tell you which ones, 'cuz that would spoil the whole story.  ~*sticks out tongue*~

//…\\ means that it's a memory…

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Chapter Five-Eat, Sleep, Swim…

 "When in doubt, blame the nameless person who looks as if they're bewildered that just happens to be standing next to you when bad things happen."

~Chris Tyler Graham

Sirius couldn't remember the last time that he had been so happy.

Freedom had come at a great price for the ex-convict so wrongly accused, as everyone still suspected him.  His wand had been (somehow) recovered, and a _priori incantatum_ spell had been preformed.

No dark magic.

Not even anything remotely illegal.

And so, with much suspicion upon his poor little head, he was reluctantly set free, having served time enough for the charges of breaking and entering Hogwarts.

Six months later he met the love of his life, Janette (and nearly gave her a heart attack, as she was a Muggle born who had heard when he broke out and not that he was free).  Now he sat with her on the couch in his small apartment, telling her all of the things that had ever happened to him.

She was currently laughing over a prank that he had pulled on Lily and James shortly before they had died.

"That's too funny, Siri.  Tell me, what did James do when he found Harry floating ten feet above his crib?"

"Let's just say—"  A barn owl suddenly swooped through the nearby window, upsetting a vase of roses.  Startled, Janette jumped and twitched her hands.  The vase stopped in midair.

"I hate it when you do that," Sirius remarked, frowning slightly.  "It just reminds me that I can't."

Janette smiled.  "I'm sure it would have come in handy many a time."  She held her arm out to the frightened looking owl, onto which it hopped timidly.

A black letter was wrapped around its leg.

"Sirius," she said, a frightened tone in her voice.  Sirius quickly unwrapped the letter from the leg.  Both assumed it was about Janette's parents.

Neither was prepared for the name that it bore.

"Me?" he said, startled.  "But my parents have been dead for years!"

"What about Remus?" Janette asked.  And then, "What about Harry?"

Sirius tore into the letter and scanned the first few sentences.

"Mr. Sirius Black: we regret to inform you of the passing of your…of your…" Sirius trailed off.  Janette looked worried as his face paled rapidly, turning the color of ash.

"Of your what?"

"Of your godson, Harry Potter…"

~&~

Pyro reached over Chris and opened the door to the truck.  Lia's screams of terror could still be heard, though Pyro guessed that she was a good four or five blocks away by that point—perhaps even to Highway 99.

"Move, punk," Pyro told Chris, annoyed.

"Why?  Who named you dictator?  Huh?  Punk.  In.  Punkin."  He grinned at her.

 "Because I'm going to make you get out otherwise, and I don't think that you'd like the method I'd use."

"Care to share?"

"Wouldn't you much rather exercise your imagination by HITTING YOUR HEAD ON A STEERING WHEEL?"

Chris looked thoughtful for a moment, and then paled.  "I'm moving."  He moved so slowly and cautiously, however, that Pyro nearly resorted to plowing through Jack, who hadn't moved.  Instead, she sat where she was, her arms resting on the top of the steering wheel, gazing out over the yard.  Pyro followed her eyes and found that she was staring at a certain light brown-haired, blue-eyed boy.  Pyro smiled and shook her head.  Jack had shown interest in Daniel starting from when he had joined their club team a little over three years ago.  It had been quite funny; Jack _never_ revealed her feelings openly (her friends normally had to drag them out of her with a rousing game oftruth or dare or ten fingers), so when she asked him out for the first time, it took him entirely by surprise.

**[Nova: Hehe…how many times did she ask him out, if that was the first?!]**

**[Jack: ~*holds up three fingers*~]**

**[VWW: you know what I meant…]**

Daniel had been making the pretense of going after Lia as well with a large wooden bat, but stopped as he began to pass the truck.

"Hey," he said.

"Hi," Jack said back.  She gathered her long hair—streaked with blue, as of the rest stop—and twisted it around her right hand.  **[Nova: But she got her long fingers hopelessly tangled and couldn't pull her hand out and everybody laughed at her.  And then she woke up…]  [VWW: Shut up!  I'm not going to put that in…that would be mean.]  [Jack: my fingers are long, but not _that_ long.]  [Nova: liar.]  [Jack: Am not!!  I swear!] **Pyro grinned as she recognized the movement as one that Lia also did whenever she was nervous.

"Are you okay?"

Jack blinked.  "What?"

"ARE YOU OKAY?!"

"How do you even know about the accident?  Lia never called!"

"Inad told Baskin, who told Kaori, who told Michael, who told Mike, who told me."****

"Jeez, you sound like a bunch of girls."

"Half of the gossip chain _was_ girls."  He grinned at her, and Pyro could practically see her friend melting right there in the car.

"I didn't get hurt—well, not seriously, at least.  Just a scratch."  She dropped her handful of hair and pointed to the cut with her index finger.  Daniel caught the finger and pulled it towards his face.

_Time for me to go,_ Pyro thought, and pushed Chris the rest of the way out of the truck.  He yowled with pain when his broken leg hit the ground, but Pyro ignored the yell and handed him his crutches instead.  She looked up and saw that Nik had looked up from the ground in front of the tree that he was leaning against; his blueeyes—much like his dead mother's, he'd told her once—were staring at her in a way that made her shiver.  Nik could just barely glance at a person and make them feel that they were being evaluated.  He had gone through so much for one so young.

"Did you have fun?" he asked as she approached.  No _are you all right?_ like Daniel had asked.  He knew already that she was, and there was no need for obvious questions.

"I guess," Pyro answered.  He collected her into his arms and she stood there, breathing in his scent of dirt, sweat, and some coppery smell that she could never seem to place.  **[Nova: What, like BLOOD?]  [VWW: ~*hums innocently*~ Use your imagination.  Believe what you want.  I'll clarify this later, anyway.]**  "Lia hit the guy in the backseat when we got to Seattle, though, so our trip was cut a bit short."

"What's his name?  He looks familiar."

"We're not really sure.  He lost his memory when he was hit, so Lia named him Zack."

"Zack?  As in _amnesiac_?"

Pyro sometimes forgot how frighteningly smart Nik could be.  But then again, he projected the aura that he picked up a lot more about people than most gave him credit for.

"Yes."

"Kind of a stupid name, if you ask me."

"I think another thing was that it's biblical.  You know how Lia is about biblical names.  She hoards them like you hoard secrets."

**[A/N: Before I get yelled out, it _comes from_ a biblical name.  Think for a moment.  Now stop yelling at me!!!!]**

"Well hidden?"

Pyro smiled wryly.  "In abundance, silly."

"I missed you."  Pyro looked at him in surprise and noticed a weariness that hadn't been there before.

"I missed you, too," she answered, and hugged him tighter.  _I don't know what's bothering you, Nik, but I promise you, I will find out._

_Even if I discover some things that I don't really want to know._

~&~

Zack watched Pyro and the strange boy talking over by the tree as he tried to ignore the interesting noises that Jack and—did she call him Daniel?—were making from the front seat.  **[VWW: They're kissing, stupid peoples.  ~*Shudders*~ I can see you smiling, Jack.  Just as I can see Nova trying to gouge out her eyes.  ~*laughs*~] [Kaori: _Only_ kissing?  Are you _sure_?  =) Golly, Jack…] [Nova: AHH!  I have no eyes left, and I can still see it!!  Why won't it go AWAY?!]  **The strange boy looked up at one point and stared right into his eyes.  A sharp, brief pain erupted in his forehead over his right eye, and he winced.

"What's wrong?" Kirsten asked, lightly grasping his left arm.

"Nothing," Zack told her, still watching Pyro.  He narrowed his eyes as she leaned in to hug him, practically pinning him to the tree.  "Nothing at all."

~&~

Kaori skidded to a stop in the middle of the high school parking lot.  She held up an authorative hand to stop Inad and Roman.

"I know she's hiding around here somewhere," she said calmly, as though they weren't chasing a sixteen-year-old girl around with a huge axe, a golf club, and an enormous Japanese style fan.

"Bushes?" Roman suggested, pointing the golf club towards the clump of trembling leaves.  Kaori nodded at him and he parted them.

"Mreow," said the slightly frightened cat as it wandered out, giving them each a terrified look.  It scampered away, and then broke into a dash as it spotted a new hiding spot beneath a small red Honda.

Kaori scowled.  **[Kaori: I do NOT scowl at kitties!] [VWW: NOT AT THE CAT!  Gosh…use your head, Kaori…]**"I guess this means that we keep searching," she said.  They began to sprint across the lot, and then cut across the field towards the middle school as a certain curly-haired figure pelted in through the entrance.

~&~

Jack giggled madly as Daniel stroked her ticklish spot.  **[VWW|: ~*dodges Jessica's fists*~]**  "Don't do that!" she ordered, pushing him away.  Daniel pouted.  Jack grinned and kissed him.  "If you tickle me, I'll have to tickle you back," she warned, and wriggled her fingers to accent the comment.  Daniel backed off.  **[VWW: Okay, in reality, he's not ticklish.  I asked.  And checked.  ~*pauses*~ That sounds wrong…~*hides from Jack*~]**

As though he had just noticed Zack, Daniel frowned and stared at him.  "Who's he?"

"Huh?"  Jack turned to see that Zack was still seated by the window.  He appeared to be trying to ignore Nik and Pyro, who seemed to be having a bit too much fun out of the view of the parents.  She smirked.  "That's Zack.  He's harmless."

Daniel gave her a look that read, _I was aware of that_.

Jack laughed again, and was surprised to hear Daniel joining in.

"What?"

"Your laugh is so funny it's cute."

Jack swatted him playfully.  "Thanks for that observation, he-who-has-nothing-wrong-with-him."

"Yes," he agreed, straightening slightly and examining the nails on one hand.  "It's not easy being perfect, you know."

**[Nova: Oh, look, a cute little bad-graphics ghost…]**

**[VWW/: Have you been eating ice cream before editing again?]**

**[Nova: ~*evil grin*~]**

"Oh, really now?" Jack said slyly.  "And I suppose your parents are all right about us going out now, are they?  Not that they know, right?"

"Maybe I should just _tickle_ you into submission," Daniel said, changing the subject, and proceeded to do so, much to a certain raven-haired amnesiac's displeasure.

~&~

Zack didn't know why it bothered him so much to see something as natural as kissing a loved one.  It wasn't like there was something wrong with it.  It might have had to do with the fact that very interesting noises were sometimes accompanied with the kissing; it might have had to do with the fact that Daniel was pushing Jack down onto the seat and…

**[VWW: ~*evil cackle*~ We're definitely not showing this to a certain lover-boy of Jack's…~*hides from angry explosion*~]**

**[Jack: ~*looks away*~]**

Zack quickly averted his eyes to the tree to Pyro and the strange boy who gave him the creeps.  He now held her tenderly in his arms, as though he thought of her as a precious item that could be easily broken.  He looked over the top of Pyro's head, his cold blue eyes burning into his own…what color were his eyes?

Zack looked up, leaned back to avoid being smacked in the face by Jack's flailing arm, and glanced in the mirror.

_Green_.

His eyes were green…

_//"You're the mirror image of your father…"_

_"Except for his green eyes, don't forget."_

_"Ah, yes…his eyes…you have your mother's eyes…"_\\

Zack winced as pain erupted in his forehead, just above his right eyebrow.  _Why does that keep happening?_ he wondered, slightly annoyed.  _It's not like I was hurt there or anything._  He glanced back at the mirror again and pulled back the hair that neatly covered his forehead, threatening to obscure his vision.  Beneath it was the strangest mark.  Zack leaned forward to see what it was.

It was a scar, in the shape of a lightning bolt, still shiny as though new.  Somehow he knew that he hadn't received it during a happy time.

Zack sighed resignedly and was startled when Jack and Daniel sat straight up, blushing furiously, and murmuring quick apologies to him.  Jack also tried to hide behind the seat as she readjusted her shirt into a position where all who looked at her could no longer see her bra.

"I sure hope your parents weren't looking over here," Kirsten said impishly.  If possible, both teens went an even brighter shade of red.

_//"Well, isn't this interesting.  The Mudblood and Scar-face snogging in the library."  The two teens looked up, their feelings for the newcomer plain on their faces._

_"Skive off!"_

_"Oh, and miss the opportunity to see the Weasel's reaction to this happy gathering?  Not in a million years…"_

_The sneer on the blond's face made him angry, but what he had said wiped every thought from his head.  _He's_ here?_

_Sure enough, the redhead walked out from behind a bookshelf, an astonished and betrayed look on his face._\\

**[VWW: Yes, I know the memory doesn't really fit.  But I needed a memory of his friends, or sorta, for something later on.]**

Zack shook his head to get rid of the memory.  He knew instinctively that the girl and the redheaded boy were two very close friends of his.  The blond, **[Nova: tan, hot guy!][VWW: yeah, IN THE SECOND MOVIE, NOT IN THE CANNONS!!!] **he knew, was not.

Clear as day, the feeling of the girl's lips on his was still there, even though it had been but a memory.  Zack glanced out of the window and saw that Chris, who hadn't moved farther than midway between the truck and Pyro and the stranger, was watching Jack.  Zack noticed that he had a strange yet unreadable look on his face.  Almost…sadness?

~&~

There was only one thing echoing through Lia's mind at that very moment.

_Runrunrunrunrunrunrunrunrun!_

Her breath came in jagged gasps as she circled the middle school, trying and (although she didn't know it) succeeding to confuse her tail into thinking that she was actually trying to enter the building.  Something glinted out of the corner of her eye, and Lia nearly turned to see what it was.  Then, she remembered.

_That damn axe!_ she thought miserably.  _Damn stupid Therese for giving it to her!  Didn't she _know_ that Inad would grab it and run after me?!_

_Stupid Roman for chasing too.  It's not like his girlfriend was in the wreck!  Hmm…Maybe I should remind him of that…later…after I—_

She broke off as she swerved around the last side of the school, ending up facing the parking lot.  Inad, Roman, and Kaori were walking into the school, neatly stashing their weapons into the well in the small garden in front of the school.  After all, the _No weapons no skateboards_ etc. signs were everywhere.

Well, at least they paid attention to _that_ law.

Lia waited until they were safely inside the building until she sprinted across the lot and began to race back towards Jack's house.  _Maybe if I'm lucky, Fred Meyers will let me beg for sanctuary,_ she thought bitterly.  It was a long, shot, but she believed that there were signs about anti-weaponry there too.

~&~

 "Melinda, calm down."

"But he's trying to suck my daughter's lungs out!"

"Well, if he did, I know a few good trauma surgeons— "

"Kaitlin!  That is _not_ funny.  If I ever…"

"Stop!  Don't go over there.  They're teenagers, and they're boyfriend and girlfriend.  Besides, don't tell me you never made out with your boyfriend when you were sixteen."

"Well I—but I never…when I was sixteen…ugh!"

"Was that her _shirt_ flying out the window?"

"_I'm going to slit that boy from neck to_— "

"No!  Stop!  Don't just stand there, Kait, help me!"

~&~

Jack noticed that her hands were shaking slightly as she smoothed down the front of her shirt.  She also noticed that none of the parents had stopped glaring at any of them.

"When Lia gets back, we'll finish this discussion," Teri Florence said, her anger prominent in her voice.  "How could you be so foolish as to not leave a message after it happened?"

Jack glanced at Pyro from underneath her eyelashes, and then to Kirsten, and finally to Chris.

"Any one of you could have been killed.  And with Lia driving!  You four _know_ she hasn't had her license for the required six months yet!"

"Mrs. Florence—"

"And _you_, Christopher…"

They all winced; if she had moved onto using full names—even for children who were not her own—they were in _very_ big trouble.

"I swear, I didn't do anything!"

"How am I going to explain your leg to your mother?"

"Leave me at Daniel's house until it heals?"

Jack felt a snigger bubbling in her throat and stuffed her fist in her mouth to prevent it from being audible.  To her right, she could feel Pyro doing the same.

"_Hush_, you three!"  Jack looked at Kirsten, and saw that she had a glazed look on her face and was giggling madly.

"Oh, no," she moaned.

"What, Jessakah?"

"Jack, Teri.  They're 'communicating'."

"'They'?"

Jack jerked her thumb towards Kirsten, who gave them all an innocent look.

"They're heading back over here now.  It seems that Lia tricked them into thinking she went into Alki or something.  They'll be here any minute now…"

Just then, Lia burst into view, sprinting for all she was worth towards Fred Meyers.

"This will be interesting," Jack, Pyro, and Chris said in unison.  Kirsten continued her insane giggling.

~&~

"_Runrunrunrunrunrunrunrunrun_!!!!" Lia panted, dodging a car that was trying to leave the parking lot.  The double doors to the store loomed ahead of her, looking as inviting as the car that was parked nearby.  She resisted the urge to dive under it and pushed through the doors.  "Safe!" she cried, startling a few people coming out with their groceries.  She realized seconds later that her hair must look really interesting, as frizzy as she imagined it to be at that moment.  She turned around as a car honked its horn at something—or someone—and saw that her three favorite people were back, and trying to hack their way through the car that had honked at them—

Lia shook her head to clear her vision.  The three teens were speaking with Jack, Pyro, and her mother, pointing off into one direction, and then another.  Even from where she stood, Lia could make out the evil grin that came over Jack's face as she pointed towards her.

She rushed into the store, causing the man nearby to yell, "_Hey_!"  Glancing around hurriedly, she wondered where she could hide next.

Too late.

"Hey, Lia…"  Lia's blood ran cold in her veins as she turned.  Kaori grinned as she snapped her fan shut.  "Nice to see you again.  Did you have fun?"

"Umm…uh, that is—"

"That's nice.  It's time for you to—" Roman started.

Lia interrupted him.  "Sanctuary!" she cried, flinging herself to her knees and attempting to bring her hands up in a praying motion.  Her left arm was restricted from doing so properly, however, and several people nearby laughed.  Lia ignored them.

"What?" Inad and Roman said in unison.

"You can't claim sanctuary!" Kaori cried, laughing.  "This is Fred Meyers*, not a church!"

Lia pointed behind her to a shelf.  Someone had set up a large cross on it, with a bunch of cards lying around it.

"Fine," Inad said, dropping the axe.  "We'll leave you alone."

Lia sagged in relief.

"_If_ you never do that again."

"Never!  I promise!  Just put those things away and don't take them out again!"

"But I like my fan," Kaori insisted, hugging it to her chest.

"And I like my head to not be bruised, or rolling around not attached to my neck," Lia said sarcastically.

As they walked out of the store, shoppers heard the only male out of the four say, "We wouldn't have hurt you, you know."  Some laughed when the girl with frizzy hair began to race after them after stealing his golf club, waving it threateningly in the air.

~&~

 "We're going home," Mr. Granger announced that evening at dinner.  Hermione looked up slowly, holding her hair out of her face with one hand and picking at her food with the other.

"That's it?" Ron asked angrily, slapping his hands down on the table.  "We're just going to give up, just like that?  No fight or anything?"

"Ron—"

"No!"  Ron stood up so fast that he knocked his chair over.  Ginny looked down at her plate, her red hair hiding her face.  "I'm staying here until we find him, even if it means breaking law after law!"

Mrs. Granger looked at her daughter.  "Hermione, would you please…"  She trailed off at the look on her daughter's face.  Hermione stood up, grabbed Ron by the collar of his shirt, and swung him into the nearest wall.  His head slammed against it and his eyes went slightly unfocused.

"I know you can hear me," she said, her voice shaking with emotion.  "We are going back to England.  Dumbledore can take care of the rest of this.  It's out of our hands, Ron.  There's nothing else we can do except step back and wait for him to be found."

Ron grunted.

"How?" Ginny asked.  Hermione turned around, dropping Ron as she did so.  He plummeted to the floor like a sac full of stones and sat there with a dazed expression on his face.

"Pardon?"

"How are they going to find him if he's with a girl who doesn't even exist?"

"They'll find him," Hermione said, her eyes blazing.  "Even if it means breaking a few laws along the way.  They won't leave the Boy-Who-Lived to the dementors.  He's too important.  What happens to him may mold what happens between You-Know-Who and the rest of the wizarding world.  The Ministry can't afford for that to be negative."

"Our flight leaves tomorrow morning," Mr. Granger said, standing up.  A tawny owl suddenly swooped through the window, screeching its greeting.  It landed on the table between a bowl of mashed potatoes and the chicken.  After giving the latter a derisive hoot, it hopped to Mrs. Granger and held out its leg, exposing the attached letter.

"It's Dumbledore's," Ron said thickly from the floor.

"Finally," Hermione said.  "We sent that letter two days ago!"  She walked over to the table and pulled the letter off its leg.  Cracking the seal with her fingernail, she scanned the letter.  Then, with no warning, she dropped it with a little scream and backed away from it as quickly as she could.

"No," she whispered, crouching down on her knees.  "No…it can't be."

A few white feathers floated with the letter down to the floor and landed softly, making no noise.

~&~

As he lay in bed, unable to sleep, Zack couldn't help but think that something was missing.  Chris' parents had been more than kind to him; they even agreed to give him Chris' brother's old room, as soon as they got a new bed to go in it.

Chris had dropped of some time ago, and his snores were now filling the room in a comforting way.  The window had been left open, letting the warm night air flood into the room.

Zack still had the feeling that a very large part of him was missing, aside from his memories.

Giving up on sleep for the meantime, Zack threw away the thin sheet that he had been using and got to his feet.  Padding to the kitchen to get something to drink seemed like a good idea.

A minute or so later, Zack stood near the faucet with a glass in his hand.  He swirled the water in it around, not really paying attention to the fact that it was nearly flowing over the edge.  Memories like small, brightly colored birds were flashing in front of his eyes, too fast for him to really grasp on to, until one slowed down enough so that he could actually comprehend what was going on…

//_Lily, take him and run!"_

_"No!  Not without you!"_

**[Nova (in singsong voice): I'll never let go, Jack, I'll never let go…!]**

**[Jack: Crazy beta-reader…]**

_"Don't be foolish; GO!"_

_…Anguished sobs…_

_"_Lily_!  Take him and go!  It's him! Go!  Run!  I'll hold him off—"_

_…Stumbling…_

_…Wood cracking…_

_…Laughter…evil laughter…_

_…Screaming…_

_…Silence…_\\

Silence…it was deafening…

The glass shattered as it hit the floor, though Zack didn't notice it.  He was too busy hurling everything that was in his stomach at that moment onto the once sparkling tiles.  His head spun, throbbing in one concentrated spot.  After the vomiting had subsided, he pressed his hand—cool, maybe even freezing—to his forehead, trying to ease the pain.

Instead, more images flashed in his mind, but these were not memories.

_Many robed figures stood in a circle, each united in all but one way, though Zack did not know what it was at that moment.  His mind was a blur.  Coldness seeped into his skin to chill his bones as a voice spoke._

_"The boy is dead."  A figure walked through a part in the crowd.  A deep red light shone from his eyes, as though someone had placed two small yet powerful light bulbs there as a joke.  He too was robed, but from one long-fingered hand he held a snow-white owl—a snowy owl, Zack suddenly realized.  Another sick feeling came into his stomach, though it wasn't like the one that he had had when he was throwing up.  This one was of anger…sadness…fear…_

_The circle of men whispered to one another, each comment the same: "Is he truly dead?  Is it really over?  Are we really free?"_

Free from what? _Zack wondered.  What could be so horrible that they questioned what they were told?_

More pain in his forehead, and then all went black.

~&~

_Crash!_

Sirius burst through the front doors of the castle known as Hogwarts, ignoring startled gasps from various adults as he stormed through the halls, searching for one point in particular.  Those who looked close enough noted that his eyes were rimmed in red, giving him the appearance that he had either little to no sleep or had done a lot of crying.  The woman who trailed behind him was no better, although she lacked the red-rimmed eyes.

"_Dumbledore_!" Sirius roared, approaching a stone gargoyle in the middle of an otherwise empty corridor.  The gargoyle leapt aside, revealing a winding staircase that led to a beautiful wood door, which the furious ex-convict nearly knocked off its hinges as he entered the room.

"Sirius, what is the matter that makes you need to be so violent?" Dumbledore asked meekly, staring at his former student from behind half-moon glasses.

White lipped with fury, Sirius threw the letter that had caused so much distress onto the desk before collapsing into a chair.  Janette stood behind him, a comforting hand on his shoulder, staring into the eyes of her old head master.

Dumbledore glanced at the contents of the letter and sighed.  "Did anything else accompany this?  His wand, his glasses?"

"Nothing," Janette said, after Sirius made no motion to even twitch one of his fingers.

"He was with Mr. Weasley and Ms. Granger in America, was he not?"

"Yes, that's right."  Janette glanced down at Sirius before looking up again.  "What does that have to do with anythin—oh."  Her pale blue eyes widened.  "You don't think that—would the Weasleys know?"

"There's only one way to find out.  Take Sirius home, Ms. White.  Make sure he doesn't cause any trouble."  The look in Dumbledore's eyes was quite grave by this point.  "I'll let you know if find out anything of importance."

After hearing the click of the door shutting, Dumbledore sighed.  "It seems that the war has truly begun," he said soberly.

~&~

_"…Zack…"_

_Zack lifted his aching head from the ground, only to realize that it had disappeared entirely.  He was back in the black void that he had been in before he came out of his coma only one day before._

_"…Zack…"_

_The disembodied voice had also returned, though Zack remembered to whom it belonged._

_"Where are you?" he asked.  "I want to see you again."_

_She materialized before him, a sad smile on her face, her raven black curls whipping around her head.  "I know you do.  That's why I brought you here."_

_"Who am I, really?" Zack asked.  "I have all these memories, but none seem to fit together."_

_"I'm keeping you safe, Zack," she told him, walking forward with the grace of an angel.  "Just remember that one thing as you go few the next few months.  Nothing can hurt you as long as you remember this place and me."_

_"Who am I?!" Zack demanded, grabbing her shoulders roughly and shaking her.  Her pale blue eyes, nearly white in their brilliance, closed as sadness finally overtook her._

_"Soon.  It will be soon."  Her eyes opened again, and Zack noted dimly that they had started to glow slightly.  "You will meet people who know you, but do not be fooled by their friendship.  Some will be bad people, people who want nothing more than your existence eliminated from this earth."  She gripped his shoulders back, surprising him.  "Remember that as well."_

_The world swirled, and the light point that had appeared in the distance swam forward to greet him._

~&~

"Zack…"

Zack groaned as pain erupted in his head.  Why couldn't he be left alone to sleep?

A rancid smell met his nose suddenly, causing him to roll swiftly in the opposite direction of him, right into a body.

"Zack!" the whispered voice came to him with a frantic note behind it.  "Dammit, Zack, wake up!  My parents are going to kill me…"

Zack opened his eyes to see a very blurry figure above him.  He blinked, trying to clear his vision.  Then he remembered that it was always like this.  Perhaps this was how other people saw as well.

"What is it?" he asked, his voice slurred and full of sleep.

Chris frowned.  "Have you been drinking?  If so, where did you find the alcohol?"

"Drinking?" Zack asked, confused.  He cleared his throat and sat up, with menial help from the tall, curly-haired teen.

"Puke on the floor, a shattered glass, you knocked out.  It all points to it."

Zack looked down at the different liquids on the floor and remembered the bad smell.  "Oh.  Sorry about that…I tried to remember stuff, but it just made my head hurt a lot and then…"  

//_ …Robed figures in a circle…_

_…Coldness…_

_…Someone was dead…_\\

"Someone's dead!" Zack burst out suddenly, grabbing Chris' arm with his left hand and pushing himself off the floor entirely.  He swayed slightly as the blood all rushed to his head and nearly pulled Chris over.  "Someone…someone's dead!"

"What are you talking about?" Chris hissed, looking over his shoulder at a door.

"I don't know…people…" Zack furrowed his brow as he tried to remember the strange dream—or was it a dream?  It had seemed so real…  "People were waiting in a circle…I couldn't see their faces; they wore cloaks or something with hoods…it hid their faces."

Chris looked slightly scared.  "Were they speaking in a different language?  With an accent or something?  Maybe it was al-Quaeda!"

"No, it was definitely English.  Who's al-Quaeda?"

"Never mind."  Chris waved a hand, telling him to continue, and shifted his weight from his uninjured foot to one of his crutches.

"Someone came.  Er…" Zack frowned and winced as his forehead flared in pain, and pressed a hand against it.  Again, it felt like ice to his hot face.  "I can't remember…" 

"But who's dead?"

Zack looked down at the puddle of puke that was beginning to dry and then back up to Chris.  "I don't remember.  I don't even know if it said."  He frowned again and massaged his temple.  "I don't know whether it was a memory, a dream, or—"

"A hallucination?" Chris suggested with a grin.  "Maybe you did drink something that didn't agree with your stomach.  Now hurry up and help me clean this up before my parents wake up.  I'm surprised that they didn't come running out here, with all that screaming you were doing."  He shuddered, as if remembering.  "It sounded like you were trying to raise the dead, or something."

_Maybe I was,_ Zack thought.  _Or maybe I'm the dead one…_

~&~

The next week flew by, although Zack felt like he was being purposely given nothing to do.  Chris' parents wouldn't let him put his dishes in the dishwasher.  They wouldn't let him help with chores.

The only thing they _did_ let him do was follow Chris to swim practice—not that he was going to be doing swimming any time soon.  He and Lia were stuck on the sidelines until Lia's arm healed to the point that it wasn't an issue that the stitches would come out (and that she could move her arm properly), and Chris had to wait until his leg healed.

At the current moment, Zack would have sold his teeth for Chris' leg to be healed, as he was whining a great deal and annoying practically everyone.

"I want to be in the water!"

Out of the corner of his eye, Zack saw Lia turn to Chris with an annoyed expression on her face.  Her arm was hurting her for some reason.  "Stupid: so do I!"

"Let's try this again: I WANNA BE—"

"Face down, floating, with that sexy, sexy lifeguard standing over you, wondering why he couldn't get to your bloated body in time."

Chris shuddered and Zack suppressed a laugh.

"What?  Was it something I said?" Lia asked innocently, her lips curled at the corners in a half smile.

They had gained Zack's full attention now.

"I think it was the 'sexy, sexy lifeguard' part that makes me want to poke my eyes out."

"What?  Not the bloated body in the water thing?   Damn…I'm loosing my touch…"  Lia noticed that Zack was watching just them and flashed him a huge grin.  "Enjoying yourself?"

"Er…"  Zack shrugged.

"Did you swim when you…oh, wait…never mind…heh…"  Lia scratched her head.  "Let's try this again: do you swim?  Do you _think_ you can swim?"

"I don't know," Zack said.  "Every time I look at the water, though, I get the image of being at the bottom of a very deep lake."

Lia looked very disturbed.  "The…bottom?"

Chris grinned.  "Lia's afraid of deep water."  His grin turned to a look of thoughtfulness.  "It's a mystery why she loves swimming so much."

Lia made a face at Chris.  "If you had nearly drowned when you were three, you—"

"Wouldn't like water either," Chris interrupted.  He had obviously heard the speech a million times or more.

"You nearly drowned?" Zack asked.

Chris groaned.  "Don't ask her, please!" he pleaded.

"My mother was riding along a dock—"

"Tipped over, under water for less than five minutes but more than one, nearly died, close to death, yada yada yada," Chris quickly finished for her.

"It was a terrifying experience," she concluded.

Chris rolled his eyes.  "You were three.  You probably don't actually remember; just stories that your mother has told you."

"I remember warm orange juice, which I spat at the guy who rescued my mother and me.  I remember the counselor who kept trying to get me to tell her what happened by drawings and all I was interested in was telling her about the bumble bee that I had seen on the stairs in front of the room."  Zack saw that Lia's eyes were bright green now.  "I remember—"

"Okay, okay!" Chris held up his hands in defeat.  "You remember!"  He turned to look at the swimmers in the pool and sighed.  "They're sprinting."

"You would be complaining if you were in there sprinting," Lia pointed out.

"It's better than being on the sidelines, watching them have all the fun complaining."

Lia growled angrily and pulled at her hair with her uninjured hand, which came out of her ponytail in a large bunch.

Zack was once again trying not to laugh, but he suspected that his twitching lips were giving him away.

"I'm going to go try to fix my hair," Lia murmured, and got up from her chair.  The slamming of the locker room door told them that she had pulled it shut instead of letting it go on its own.

"Now you've done it," Chris told Zack.

Zack was confused.  All he had done was try not to laugh…

~&~

**[A/N: I would like everyone to note that the real Jack wrote this.  I bought her a nifty little notebook for Christmas (and pencils!), and she wanted to know what to write, so I told her to have fun and write this next part.  Enjoy.]**

"Eight fifties on a minute.  Drill, swim; your choice," Coach shouted, trying to be heard over the noise of the swimmers chattering.

"Eight?  On a minute?" Mike asked.  Jack shook her head sadly.  He never got it right the first time.

"_Yes_, Mike," Coach said, irritated.  "First person goes on the top."

Jack and Daniel started their fifties with relative ease.  As she rolled her head to breathe, Jack noted that Pyro seemed to be having more trouble than usual.  _Probly her wrist,_ she thought.

As Jack finished her third fifty, she glanced up at Chris, Lia, and Zack.  _Losers,_ she thought maliciously, watching Chris and Lia argue over something.  Behind her, she heard Daniel laugh softly.

"Look at them," he said, nodding in their direction.

"Yeah," Jack said.  She grinned.  "Are they losers, or what?"  Daniel laughed again, and Jack left the wall smiling.

~&~

**{Still Jack here…}**

Five minutes later, Jack yanked off her swim cap untied the hair elastic that she had used to keep her hair in a loose bun.  After soaking it in the water for a moment, she pulled herself from the pool, letting water splash everywhere.  After putting their equipment away, they grabbed their bags and walked towards the locker room and the three teens who didn't swim.

"How was practice?" Lia asked sarcastically.  Jack held back a snigger when she saw how frizzy her friend's hair was.

"It was so much fun!" Jack trilled, now grinning broadly.  "You guys should have swam with us.  Oh, wait!  That's right…I'm so sorry; I forgot."

"Don't make me hit you with my crutch," Chris threatened her, waving it in the air.

"I'm sorry…here, let me give you guys a hug."  Jack glanced briefly at Pyro, letting her know to join in.  The two of them engulfed Chris and Lia in wet hugs.  Lia obviously didn't enjoy it, as she shrieked loudly and tried to keep her still heavily bandaged arm out of harm's way.

"Thanks so very much," Lia said, her voice dripping with sarcasm as she tried to dry her shirt.  "Go get changed, or something, before we push you back in the pool."

_I'd like to see Chris try without getting his cast wet,_ Jack thought evilly, a grin coming over her face.  Then she turned to Daniel and asked, "D, will you give me a ride home?  I really don't want to ride home with Lia and Pyro."  She paused and side-glanced them.  "For obvious reasons."  The blue-tipped haired girl was jumped up and down and giggling insanely once again.

Looking back to Daniel, Jack saw that he had his eyebrows raised.

"I completely understand," he said.  "But I'm giving Chris and Zack a ride, too.  I'm sure they won't mind if I give you a ride also, though."

"That would be great," Jack told him.  "I'll call my mom and tell her you're coming over to eat dinner."

She barely heard the whisper that Lia shot to Zack: "Every time Daniel gives a ride to Jack, they either end up taking forever to get home because of 'detours' made in the parking lot, or he ends up eating at her house."

_I'll get her later,_ Jack thought angrily, squishing the urge to hurl her friend into the pool.  "Yeah, cool. See you upstairs," he said and gave her a hug that was interrupted by a disgusted Pyro.

"Disconnect!  Now!" she bellowed.  They immediately separated.  Pyro thanked them.

"We only did that for your sanity, you know," Daniel told her.

"What sanity?" Lia asked, and then looking around, as though she hadn't said it and was wondering who would have the guts to say something like that.

Jack ignored Lia and instead held up three fingers and mouthed the word "Goat!"

After saying farewell to her "boyfriend", who left for the guys locker room, she walked into the girls locker room.  "You goat," she scolded Pyro.  "We were just hugging!"

"Which would turn into something more," Pyro said knowingly.

"Not at practice.  No one is supposed to know, except a select few.  Anyways—"

"Is not a word," Lia sang, popping in and bouncing to the door.

Jack blinked after her and turned back to Pyro.  "Do you want to come over too?" she asked, aiming the comment at both girls.

"Yup!" Lia yelled thought the slowly closing door.

"Sure," Pyro said.

"I'd have to ask my mom," Chris' voice said from outside the door.

"What would we be having?" Zack asked.  _That, I do believe, is the most he's said to me since I met him,_ Jack thought to herself.

"Umm…pizza, probably.  Or…pizza.  Yeah, we're having pizza."

"Good.  Pizza's good.  See y'alls upstairs," Lia yelled.  The door snapped shut, leaving Jack, Pyro, and the rest of the girls who slowly sauntered into the locker room to dress in silence.

~&~

**{Still JB…}**

The two girls came out of the locker room together, meeting with Daniel at the bottom of the stairs and Lia, Chris, and Zack at the top.  Jack and Daniel walked on either side of Pyro, pretending that they were "just friends".

"Are you guys coming to my house for dinner?" Jack asked them.

"Didn't we go through this already?" Lia asked.

Chris glanced at her, his eyebrows raised, and answered slowly.  "I guess. But Daniel would have to take us to my house to ask first," Chris replied.

"Yeah, okay. I'm coming with. Dan is giving me a ride, too."

"No detours," Lia told them, waving her finger in Jack's direction.

"Okay, okay," Jack said

"Promise?"

"Yes!  Jeeze, ye of little faith!"

"Promise what?" Zack asked, obviously confused.

"Weren't you listening?" Jack asked him.

"I suppose I wasn't," Zack answered.

"It doesn't matter," Jack told him.

"Huh?  What doesn't matter?" Lia asked.

"Nuthin'.  We were just talking about stuff."

"Stuff?" Lia asked, a suspicious frown coming over her face.  "What kind of stuff?"

"Why does it matter?" Jack demanded.

"Because I wanna know.  Why can't you just tell me?"

"If I told you, I'd have to kill you.  Well, we would both have to kill you."  Jack nodded towards Chris.

"And I doubt that you would like that," Chris agreed.

"Are you ready?" Daniel asked, stepping in just in time to prevent a typical Lia outburst.

"I guess," Jack answered.  "Pyro, Lia, head over to my house.  We'll meet you there."

"Under forty-five minutes this time, please," Pyro ordered.

"I would like to eat before midnight, for once," Lia agreed.

Jack scowled.  "That was only once!"

"Yeah," Lia told her.  "Once too many!"

"Fine.  Ruin our fun," Daniel told her with a pout.  The six of them walked out the front doors and into the warm August night.

--------------------

*Fred Meyers is a large store with everything from regular groceries to clothing to home accessories.  It's great, especially if you need to get a gift for someone at the last minute.  I know that, 'cuz my family used it when my birthday was here two months ago…cheapskates…

Next chapter: planning, a road trip to Eugene, swimming galore, and preparations for school.  Oh, yes…that's right…and someone who thinks that they might know Zack…heh…

Thank you for all your wonderful reviews!

**JB**: Stupid, your scene is in Chapter 5!  Why don't you want Nova to see your face when you read it, Jessakah?  Hmm?  ~*evil grin*~ I know why…perhaps I should needle Nova into reading this review response page later on….MWAHAHAHAHA!!

Don't forget, I know you know who all the characters are based on, SO DON'T GIVE IT AWAY!!!  I've already talked to you about this over the phone, so it's okay…JUST DON'T!!!

**HERMIONE POTTER 5000**: You find out in this chapter…hehehe…

It would be too bad if they never found Harry…~*evil grin*~

**Lucy-Liza**: I'm glad that you think so!  Nova told me to keep them in after a few of them turned out to be hilarious.

THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT!!  All my friends made fun of me when I came up with the name originally, and I'm glad that SOMEONE out there thinks it's a good name.

My friends think it's very funny that you called their characters 'demented'.  I found it funny too, since Lia wasn't under the 'demented' list!  The blackmail photo…I hope that 'Pyro' and 'Jack' know that if they _ever_ did something like that, they would be in big trouble…

**Slimshadyfreak**: I don't know all of mine of the US yet either…but I have a legitimate excuse: I moved here at the end of fifth grade, after my class had learned a good majority of the US.  So, I have to suffer not knowing all of the states/capitals by heart.  Oh, well…

**Jill**: You're right…Seattians does make it sound like an alien…hmm…we'll think of something…

And Nova said that the story was slow and told me to get on with it!  Oh, well…

**tringal**: Thank you!

YELM?  Where's that?  I've never heard of it…

I think that ch. 5 was even better than ch. 4, but that's my opinion…but remember: what goes up must come down…sorry…last year's physics class took over my brain~*evil grin*~

You'll find out soon…~*cackle*~

**Aleena Malfoy**: whateeeeever….lol…two people have told me that!  Well…I guess I'd get ticked if someone called me something that I wasn't…~*glares at Nova, Jack, etc*~

I'm glad that you're enjoying the conversations so much.  My friends at school slap me sometimes because of half the stuff I put down, but it's so fun to write and then see the expressions on their faces!  Especially for one section in this chapter, for Jack…hehe…~*runs away and hides*~

**FireCracker**: Saving the longest for last…

Nova told me to put the 'bitca' thing in.  She thought it would be funny if we got the point across that 'Chris' sometimes doesn't really use his head…

I would be more than happy to put a list up of the characters:

Zack—he's Harry, but that was stated as an obvious in chapter three.

Lia(nne) Florence

Jessakah (Jack) Gilligan

Avon "Pyro" Archer

Chris(topher) Graham

Kirsten Orlae

Inad Spencer

Kaori Hirashi

Nik(olas) Muzgash—Pyro's boyfriend **(this chapter)**

Daniel O'Connor—Jack's boyfriend **(this chapter)**

Roman Anthrax **(inside joke)**—Inad's boyfriend **(this chapter, more about him next chapter)**

Celeste Fae Stanley **(next chapter)**

MarySue Davis—My apologies: yes, there _is_ a MarySue in the story.  Just not the main character, for once **(next chapter)**

Teri Florence—Lia's mother

Melinda Gilligan—Jack's mother

Kat Spencer—Inad's mother

Kaitlin Archer—Pyro's mother

Other characters have been mentioned, but as they're not important to the plot or anything, they're not shown.  Well, actually, not all of the characters up _are_ important, but they need to be there, since they're in so much.  You get my point, I hope.

Oh, and here's one little hint: a character that _wasn't_ mentioned on the list _is_ very important to the plot.  And one that _was_ mentioned on the list _isn't_ important at all.  Have fun deducing it out…what a mystery…~*glares at everyone who already knows who's who*~

Until the next chapter!!!


	6. Chapter Six: And Swim Some More!

**A/N**: Sorry it took me so long to get this out…Schnoogle's being slightly stupid, and my dad JUST fixed my computer, so I can actually post on ff.n!!  Finally…after, what, six months?!  Yah, I love you guys too…=)

Thanks tons to Jessakah and my wonderful beta reader…I don't know what I'd do without you.

As a note, chapter 7 is going to take a really, really long time to get out…there have been some…changes…okay, _drastic_ changes in my social life (and since my friends are a large basis on said social life, you can guess that this has an effect on DML).  I'm not sure how DML is going to turn out now that these…changes…have occurred, so please bear with me…chapter seven will get posted…eventually…

**D/C**:  This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books, and Warner Bros., Inc.  No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.

[Insert long list of names here that's posted in chapter five, which I can't (for some reason) access right now…]are based upon actual people, but their names have been changed to protect the actual persons from a life of fame and wealth (hah!  You wish…).

"Talking inside of each other's heads" was made up by the real Kirsten and Inad.  They came up with it last year.  I have yet to figure out whether they actually do it or not.

The majority of the comments in this story actually came from the people that are said to have said them.  A few were added by me, but I won't tell you which ones, 'cuz that would spoil the whole story.  ~*sticks out tongue*~

//…\\ means that it's a memory…

**Chapter Six-And Swim Some More!**

_"I have respect for those who are able to withstand sitting in between Kirsten and Inad during lunch._

_"_A lot_ of respect."_

_~Avon "Pyro" Archer_****

**{Still JB…}**

Jack picked up the phone from its cradle.  "Hello?" she answered groggily.  The mysterious caller had woken her up.  _If it's anyone I know,_ she thought to herself angrily, _I'll make sure they suffer considerably for waking me up!_

"Hey.  It's me."

"Hello, me."

"Oh, sorry, did I wake you up?"

"No, Chris," Jack said sarcastically, recognizing the voice.  "I didn't go to morning practice at 5:30 and swim for two hours either."

"Sorry!  I just wanted to let you know that I need a ride to the meet this weekend."

"Dammit, Chris!  You _know_ I sleep after practice!  _And_ you woke me up!  And right now, I _really_ don't feel like I want to give you one."

"Then I guess I'll just not come."

"Fine.  I'll be nice…"  She sighed as she heard him sniggering.  "Even though you aren't even swimming… do you know if Zack wants to come?  'Cuz I'll give him a ride, too," she told him.

"Hang on…"  In the background, she could hear him yelling at the Brit to come talk to her.  "I have to talk to mother dearest…but I won't be very long," he promised as Jack sighed in mock exasperation.

She heard the phone switching hands, and then being dropped.  She winced as the loud sound reached her ear.

"Hullo?  Jack?" Zack said into the phone, as though unsure of how to use it.  _Maybe he didn't have one wherever he lived,_ she speculated idly.  _That's ridiculous,_ she thought immediately afterwards.

"That would be me," she answered, slightly more awake now that her brain was moving.  "Are you coming?"

"To what?"

"The swim meet!  It's in Eugene…oh, wait…you have no idea where that is…it's in Oregon…but you probably have no idea where _that_ is either…anyways, it's, like, two hours away from here.  If you're coming, we're camping, so bring warm clothes…well, semi-warm…heh…it's August."

"I beg your pardon?"

Jack laughed.  "I'm not awake yet," she said apologetically, then repeated her speech (without the babbling).

"Oh.  Right then.  Well, I might as well, as it seems I have nothing better to do."  Then, as an afterthought, he added, "Who could be coming with us?"

"Dunno yet.  Have to make the rounds."

"'The rounds'?" Zack repeated, sounding more than a little confused.

"Umm…I need to call everyone and find out whether they're coming or not."

"Oh…right…Chris is back.  It was nice talking to you.  Good bye."  He said the last part with a little difficulty.  _Seems like he's trying to fit in,_ Jack thought with a grin.

"Sorry 'bout that," Chris' voice said over the phone.  "Can you give us both a ride?"

"I'll take mom's van—if she lets me.  We'll have enough room."  She looked up at the sound of someone knocking on her door.  "I gotta go, 'kay?"

Chris' sigh was loud in her ear.  "I guess.  Oh; what time?"

"To pick you up?"

"Yeah."

"Uh, let's see here…" Jack looked around her room, trying to find her alarm clock under the mess of junk on her nightstand.  "What time is it now?  Clock…clock…ah, 11:40…I hadn't planned on going to practice this afternoon…I'll pick you up at three-ish.  Today.  That way we'll get there in time for dinner, and set up 'camp'," she told him.

"When are we coming back home?"

"Sunday night or Monday morning…whichever I feel like, because, hey, I'm driving.  So bye," Jack said.

"Bye.  And I'll see you three-ish."  The phone beeped, letting her know that he'd hung up.

Reaching over to press the button on the cradle to hang up the phone, she yelled, "Who is it?" to her door.

"'Tis your dearest mother who wishes to speak with her daughter, the great swimmer who is planning a road trip without consulting her parents first," a voice said.  Jack wrinkled her nose at her mother's attempt at an English accent.

"Can I borrow the van?"

"Don't crash it."

Jack shuddered as memories of the all-too-near crash in Seattle surfaced in her mind.  "I don't plan on it, Mom."

"Continue your calls, J," her mother said.  Jack could hear the smile that was crawling on her mother's face.

Lifting her finger, Jack quickly dialed Daniel's number and listened to it ring.

"O'Connor residence," his mother's voice said into the phone.

"Is Daniel there?" Jack asked.

"Oh, good morning, Jack!" she said in an all too cheerful voice that was inappropriate happy for the hour.

Within a matter of seconds, Daniel was picking up the phone and yelling, "I got it!" to his mother.  "Hey, how are you?" he asked.

"Okay.  You?"

"Not bad.  So…what's up?"

"Do you need a ride to the meet?"

"Uh, yeah, sure.  What time?"

"Um, be here by two-thirty today," Jack answered.  It surprised all their friends, and Jack herself, that she could be so calm around him.  Inside, she knew, she was totally crazy about him.

"Okay, great.  Where are we staying?"

"We're camping at the school."

"Okay.  Are you driving?"  Jack thought that he sounded concerned.

"Yeah.  Mom's van, 'cuz I'm taking Chris and Zack so far.  I don't know who else, though.  Probably Pyro and Lia, though Lia may drive up on her own…if her parents even let her out of her bedroom…"  She laughed easily, as though not remembering the car accident for the second time that morning.

"I'll be there by two.  Promise."

"Okay.  See you then."

"Bye J," he told her, managing to not be mushy.

"Bye D."  They hung up and Jack sighed heavily.  _I like him so much,_ she thought.

_Too much._

~&~

**[AVM/VWW is back…for the meantime…JB's got another part further down the page…]**

Zack sat peacefully on the bed, tossing a Koosh ball from hand to hand.  Chris seemed to be in a state of panic as he tossed clothes out of his dresser and onto the floor.  Why he had waited until an hour before Jack was supposed to show up to pack was beyond Zack's imagining.  The things that Chris had loaned him to wear were packed up and waiting by the door, and had been since he learned that he was going.  Even though the clothes were almost all too tall for him **[Nova: Chris is really, _really_ tall compared to tiny Zack!]**, it seemed normal, for some reason.  As though he had worn clothes that were too big for him for all his life…

//_He was dressed in a sweatshirt so large for him that he had to roll back the sleeves five times so as to be able to use his hands, and which fell past the knees of his extremely baggy jeans.  As he stared into his bedroom mirror, he noticed how thin he looked.  _It's the clothes,_ he thought resignedly, sighing and lifting his arms.  The sleeves were so heavy that he could feel the muscles in his arms straining.  _If only that stupid cousin of mine weren't so fat_…_\\

Zack frowned and put the Koosh down on the bed.

"What?" Chris huffed, dragging his bad leg around the room.

"Nothing," he said.  Chris picked up the Koosh, sat down beside him on the bed.  He began to toss it as well.

"I know you've never been to a meet before.  Or maybe you have, and you don't remember.  Anyways, they're incredibly boring.  Even for the swimmers."

Zack just looked blankly at him.

"Of course," Chris continued, "you wouldn't want to be stuck here with Matt.  That would be worse than boring.  That would be cruel and unusual punishment."

"Is he really that bad?"

Chris pulled out a rather dusty Bill Clinton Halloween mask and put it on.  "That depends on what your definition of 'is' is."

At Zack's confused expression, he sighed, removed the mask, and said, "Never mind.  Yes, he's _really_ that bad."

"Jack said something about us camping," he said, ignoring the surprised look on Chris' face.

"Uh…yeah…"  Chris got up again and continued to pack, explaining all the while about their past camping experiences, and what the one later that day would be.

~&~

As promised, Daniel showed up at Jack's house at 2:00.  When he rang the doorbell, Jack's mother answered the door, although Jack wasn't far behind.  Jack pushed her out of the way and gave her boyfriend a hug.  "Come in.  I need to finish packing, so you can come up to my room."  She ignored the look her mother shot her and pecked him on the cheek.  "Hungry?"

"No, but thanks anyway," he answered politely.

Jack watched her mother glance from Daniel to her and back again.  Finally, she waved her hands.  "Alright.  Go upstairs.  Have fun," she told them.  She had finally given up on trying to keep them apart.

Jack smiled.  "Thanks Mom," she said, and turned to walk up the stairs.  She heard her mother's surprised, "Oof!" and turned, and smiled even broader, seeing Daniel giving her a hug.  He grinned at her from over Melinda's shoulder and then followed her up the stairs.

"I don't know what to bring," Jack told Daniel as he closed the door behind them.  She already had her swim gear set out on the bed, along with what looked like ablue bikini that was daringly cut.  Jack grinned inwardly at the double take that Daniel did as he glanced at it.  Then, looking at the clothes that were scattered everywhere, he held up a light blue Old Navy tank top and tossed it into her bag.

"You look good in it," he said with a shrug.  "Hell, you look good in everything!"

Jack turned around and dug in her jeans drawer to hide the fact that she was blushing.  "You always know exactly what to say to get a girl to like you.  Don't you?"

"It's a gift, I guess."  Jack turned and saw that he was rubbing his fingernails against his leather jacket.

"Shut up," Jack told him as she grabbed another shirt that he had picked up.  She threw it at him.

"Hey!" Daniel exclaimed.  He picked up the shirt off of the ground, folded it neatly, and set it in her bag.  He then wrapped his arms around Jack's waist.

Thoughts whirled through her mind.  "I have to pack," she told him, pulling his arms off.

"You know you like it," he whispered into her ear.

Jack brushed the hair that tickled her ear.  "Yes," she admitted.  "But I still have to pack!"  She pulled away from him and walked to her closet, and then began to pull things out, examining them.  "Should we stay there Sunday night?"

"Sure.  We could go out to dinner."

"Like a real date?"

"I wouldn't go that far."  Jack tried to hide her disappointment, but Daniel was too keen.  "Yes, like a real date."

Jack smiled, and then grabbed a very cute (and low cut) red dress.  **[Jack: AS if I had anything to show!] [Nova: Hey!  Be optimistic!]** "Good.  It'll give me the chance to wear this."  She placed the dress in the bag, grabbed "unmentionables" from the open dresser drawer that Daniel had been trying hard (and not succeeding) not to look into, and put them in the bag too.  "Be right back," she said to him as she opened the door and walked into the bathroom.  She grinned to herself.  _He's even cuter when he's trying to be good!_

When she walked back into the room, Daniel exclaimed, "Holy cow!  Do you really need all this stuff?  It's just a weekend!"  Jack shrugged and shoved it into her bag.  "That's amazing.  I've _never_ seen so much stuff in a bag that small!"

"This is nothing.  You should have seen my bag for Newport.  And I _still_ have stuff to add.  Grab some p-jams for me, please," she said to him.  He turned and began looking through the open underwear drawer.  **[AVM/VWW: Hah.  I knew he couldn't resist…even though _I_ wrote that…~*cackle*~]**  "Next drawer, D."

"Um…right…"  He closed the drawer with reluctance and opened the next one, pulling out the green striped pants with a green tank top that sat on top.

"Okay, _now_ I'm done.  Let's go pack the car.  Woo hoo!"  She zipped her bag, picked it up off her bed and told Daniel to grab a pillow.  They walked down the stairs, into the garage and set the stuff on the ground.  Jack opened the garage door, got the keys from where they were hanging on the inside of the mud room, next to the door to the garage, and then pulled the van out to the driveway.  She got out and put her stuff in the trunk.  "Where's your stuff?"

Daniel nodded to his car and walked to it, opening the door of his '82 Mercedes.  **[Daniel: Don't let the name fool you!]**  He grabbed a small black bag and carried it back to the van.

"That's it?!" Jack exclaimed as he tossed it in.

"Yeah.  I'm a guy.  I don't need seven bags."

"Blah, blah, blah.  Put it on top of my stuff."  He complied, and then they walked up to the house.  "Mom, we're leaving soon.  I promise I'll call when we get there, and keep you updated.  And I promise I'll be the only one driving."

"Good, 'cuz if you wreck it, you're payin' for it!" Melinda replied.

"'Kay.  I love you, and I'll see you Monday morning."  She gave her mom a hug.

"Here's a fifty.  _I want the change_.  I love you, too.  Oh, and Daniel—watch her carefully."

"Yes ma'am," he replied politely.

They walked back to the car.  "By Mom!  Love you!"

"By Sweetie."  Jack got behind the wheel and watched Daniel as he slid the passenger seat back a few inches, so as to give his long legs some room.

"Jack?" Daniel asked her as she started the van.

"Hmm?"

"Are you okay?"

Jack frowned and turned to face him.  "Yeah…why?"

"You've seemed a little…distanced lately."

"Don't be silly…it's just your imagination."  Three minutes later, they pulled up to Pyro's house.

"Hop out and get Pyro, would you?" she told him.  Without questions, Daniel hopped out of the car and walked to the door.

Jack sighed and leaned back in the seat.  _I'm not fine,_ she said to herself.  She was on edge about the whole trip.  After what had happened two weeks ago, she didn't want to be anywhere near the driver's seat.  She was dreadfully afraid of being in another wreck, and somebody dying this time.  It had completely surprised her when her mother had agreed to letting her go to the Eugene meet, and even more so when she let her drive.

Daniel and Pyro came out to the van, the latter holding two bags with her good hand.  After sticking her stuff in the back, she got into the middle row of seats.  Ten minutes later, they were pulling up to Lia's house, and another twenty after that, they had picked up Chris and Zack and were rolling down the highway, straight on course for Eugene.

~&~

**[This is AVM/VWW again…relax…Jack's not going to write the _whole_ thing…]**

Zack leaned back into the seat, amazed at how comfortable the van was, even though the seats were cramped together.  Chris had opted to sit with his leg stretched out, as he complained that it was feeling funny.

"It's like there's a million splinters in it," he had told Zack as they were loading their things into the back of the van.  "My wrist didn't feel like this when I broke it, so I'm going to have it checked when we get back."

Glancing from person to person, Zack realized that it was all too quiet in the van.  Jack had the radio on, although it was playing softly.  Daniel kept looking at her worriedly, and Zack didn't realize why until he saw that her knuckles were white from gripping the steering wheel so hard.

Lia and Pyro were passing notes back and forth, and when Pyro would read them, she looked behind her at Chris when she thought no one was looking.  Chris was ignoring everyone and drawing something on a drawing pad that he had gotten out of the side pocket of Lia's bag, along with a pencil.

_This is mad,_ Zack thought.  _They normally all talk so much that I can't get a word in edgewise…_  Finally, he spoke up.  "Er…is something wrong?"

Everyone jumped.  The steering wheel slipped in Jack's grasp and the car wavered.  Everyone except for him and Daniel grabbed onto the sides on their seats, and he thought he heard Lia whimper.

When Jack had control of the van again, they all rounded on him, shouting.  Zack winced and tried to edge away from the loudness.

"_Shut up_!" Daniel yelled over the din.  He grabbed Jack by the shoulder and turned her towards the road.  "As for the rest of you, that's exactly what I want to know.  I have _never_ been in Lia's presence and had her not talking.  Jack, you're gripping the steering wheel as though it's going to jump off and smack you in the face.  Pyro—_damn_, I don't even _know_ what your problem is."

Zack glanced at Lia and saw that she was about to explode.  He stuffed his fingers in his ears as she did so.  "_Dammit, Daniel, we're scared of getting in another wreck_!"

Zack saw rather than heard Daniel sigh, and slowly pulled his fingers out of his ears.  "J, pull over."

"But—"

"Jack, _pull over_."  She complied, checking very carefully that another car wasn't going to come up and smash them as she switched lanes.

Daniel unbuckled his seatbelt and turned around so that they could all see him clearly.  "Listen up.  _We are not going to get in another accident._  If' you don't all calm down—"

"I distinctly recall you getting into an accident last year," Lia interrupted, "and then being terrified of it happening again."

"Yes, but I didn't let it impair my skills."

"You call talking—"

"Lia, shut up."  If the situation hadn't been so serious, Zack would have laughed at the stunned expression on Lia's face.  "For the remainder of this trip, _I_ will be driving.  Jack, move over."

"Daniel, I promised my mother that I would be the only one driving."

"I realize that.  Your mother _also_ told me that I was to watch you carefully, and I'm doing just that.  Now move over."

~&~

In Daniel's eyes **[Nova: ears!  Hahahaha!]**, the remainder of the drive was too quiet.  Lia and Pyro had continued to pass notes back and forth, much to Jack and Chris' annoyance (Chris attempted to capture the notes in passing but to no avail.  Pyro and Lia were too quick and knew him too well), and Zack continued to stare off into space.

_He's probably trying to remember something,_ Daniel supposed, looking into the rearview mirror at the dark-haired Brit.  Zack's eyes flitted up to the mirror, looked into his for a moment, and then resumed their distant look.

When they finally pulled into the parking lot of the school just across from the pool, Daniel couldn't help but grin; signs had been erected everywhere, showing the various teams.  Their coach and another one (_is that Sandy?  PAL?_ he thought) cooing over a baby that looked no older than eight months.

Daniel slowed the car down and pulled into a spot.  He grinned as he and the rest of the teens scrambled for the doors, anxious to be out of the car and to see the cute baby, as everyone (with the exception of Zack) had realized that it was indeed Sandy and the seven-month-old Kaylee.

Before Jack could scramble off with her friends, though, Daniel grabbed her arm and kept her back.  She glanced at him, and the anger that she was trying to hide from him showed clearly in her eyes.

"Okay, listen," Daniel told her, now holding her by the shoulders.  "You were in no condition to drive."

"Daniel, I wasn't drunk!" she hissed.

"You were drunk on fear** [Nova: and high on life!!!]**.  If the car in front of us had stopped too quickly, you would have…" he raked his hand through his hair.  "In any case, you should _never_ drive scared."

"But—"

"Jack, I don't want to hear it.  Your mother told me to take care of you, and I'm doing just that.  When you're scared of something, I'm scared for you.  I love you.  I don't want you to be scared."

Jack looked down at her feet.  Daniel pulled her chin up and kissed her gently on the lips.  "Come on.  Let's catch up with the others before they think we're taking a 'detour'."

Jack grinned at him.  "What do you call it, then?"

"A detour."  He kissed her again, reveling in the warmth of her lips, before leading her along towards the others, who were speaking in baby talk to a confused Kaylee.

~&~

Zack rolled over from his back onto his stomach as he heard the tent flap zip open after everyone had gone to bed.  He pretended to still be asleep, even though he was really listening to the voice that called out.  "Daniel!"

Daniel lifted his head up, obviously alert, and slithered out of his sleeping bag.  He crawled on his hands and knees, past Zack, past Chris, and to the door.  Holding back the flap to crawl out, the moonlight illuminated Daniel, and the person who had called his name: Jack.  Zack smiled, stifled the urge to laugh, and rolled over again.

"How did you get out?"

"I told Lia to mind her own business and go back to sleep."

"In those words?  How unlike you, J.  I would have thought—"

"Oh, hush, you," Jack said, annoyed, but Zack could hear the smile on her face.  The sound of kissing met Zack's ears, and then footsteps leading away from the tent.  _I hope they don't get caught,_ Zack thought, remembering the way that Coach blew up at all of them at ten-thirty.

"They're swimming tomorrow!" she had hissed at them, gesturing at Jack, Daniel, and Pyro.  "They need their rest!"

Still smirking, Zack drifted off to sleep.

~&~

Using the word hectic for the events of the next morning was an understatement.  Lia watched with amusement as her friends rushed around their makeshift campsite, into the tents, out of the tents, to the van and back, to the bathrooms and back, and all the while, chewing on a piece of toast (Jack), or swallowing an egg (Daniel), or gulping down coffee (much to everyone's dismay and horror, Pyro).

Amidst much giggling, scolding, and all around mayhem, Coach managed to herd everyone across the street to the pool.

"You three have permission to be on deck," Coach told Lia, Chris, and Zack as everyone else separated to the changing rooms.  "As long as you don't start any problems, that is."  She rounded on Zack, and his green eyes widened in surprise.  "Are you going to be joining the team?"

"N-no," he stammered, glancing at Chris and Lia, who gave him curious looks.  "I don't think I ever learned how to swim."

"You don't think?" Coach asked, confused.  "How can you not know?  You either have or—"

Lia smothered a grin as Chris whispered something into her ear.

"Oh."  She smiled sympathetically and patted him on the shoulder.  "I didn't know."

Bewildered, Zack just nodded.  Coach's smile widened and she walked off to chat with some of the other swimmers.

Lia was turning red trying not to laugh.

~&~

"Goo normig, wafies nd gemtmen!" a slurred voice roared over the PA, reaching everybody's ears and yet no one's.  The majority of the people in VSC were busy yelling to each other, grinning, or joking around.  Daniel's hat had walked off of his head again, and he was busy trying to recapture it from Jack's hands.  Pyro was walking around with a permanent marker, drawing all over everyone and herself.  Chris and Mike were trying to get Lia to stop singing along to a CD player.

Zack watched all of it from the secluded safety of a picnic blanket that Lia had spread out ten minutes before.  The meet was about to begin—warm-ups had ended fifteen minutes before—and he couldn't help but think that this was one of the most boring things in existence.

Chris gingerly lowered himself down beside Zack.  "Why doesn't she stop?" he groaned.

"I beg your pardon?" Zack said, confused.

"Singing.  She never stops singing."

Zack looked over at Lia and noticed that Jack had joined her.  She was still managing—somehow—to keep Daniel's hat away from him with the help of Pyro, Lia, and a few of the teammates that he had met but couldn't remember the names of, and was now singing along to a song that had just started.  Zack grinned as he watched Jack dance to it, while Lia just kept singing along.

"Is there something wrong with her singing?" Zack asked, curious.

"No, except that this happens at _every_ meet.  She'll have the music on, singing along, and people who aren't as vocally gifted as she is will sing along as well."  He grinned.  "Let's just say that Jack couldn't carry a note in a bucket."

_A note in a bucket?_ Zack thought, bewildered.  _What's that supposed to mean?_  But he continued to listen, and realized what the tall boy had meant.

"Just don't tell her that I said that," Chris added quickly.  "She gets violent for some reason every time someone mentions it."

Zack grinned.  Maybe the meet wouldn't be so bad after all.

~&~

"Go…go…go…go, Jack, go!" a group of four or five teens yelled at their friend in the water, currently swimming the breaststroke portion of a 200 IM* and getting a pretty good time.  Of course, she noted as she pushed off the wall into the freestyle portion, Pyro and Chris knew to be at the starting end of the pool at the finish with her inhaler and a towel, just in case.

_Stroke stroke stroke stroke stroke stroke stroke stroke gasp!!_ she thought as she flew towards the end where the majority of her friends were cheering.  _Stroke, puuuuuuuuull, flip!_

The cheers were getting louder.

So were the yells of, "Dammit, _she's gaining!!_"

For the last eight strokes, Jack pushed herself and didn't breathe once.  Her hand collided with the wall, and she felt exultation.  She had done it!  She looked at her time on the scoreboard, which was reading second place.  _Omigod!_ She thought.  She had received a 2:13.42!  Without a throat attack, or asthma!

Jack pulled herself from the pool, exhausted, and had just enough time to brace herself before three people hurtled into her, obviously not caring if they got wet.

"Good job!"

"2:48.62!"

"Yay!"

Jack smiled even wider and left to go talk to her coach.

~&~

Zack sat in the corner of the pool deck on the same blanket as he had been for the past hour.  Everywhere he looked within a five-meter radius there were crushed goldfish, swim bags, towels, abandoned goggles, caps, mutilated water bottles, people, people, and more people.  The noise was deafening, and the routine was crazy.  A person would swim one race, have an hour and a half break, and do it all again.  The people who weren't swimming at that moment were crunched in at both ends of the pool, cheering on their teammates.  Chris and Lia had attempted to drag him up there, but eventually gave up when Jack had gone to swim her 200 IM—whatever that was.

They had told him then that the meet probably wouldn't be over for another three hours.  Wonderful.

"Bored?"  Daniel plopped down beside him, his arm around a very tired—and drippy—Jack.

"No, I'm having fun!"  He attempted a smile, but it didn't really work.  They both rolled their eyes.

"And pigs can fly," Jack said sarcastically.

"Actually, they're working on genetically enhancing pigs with chicken DNA—"

"Okay, shut up!"

Chris jumped in.  "Yeah.  And then it would be like chicken _and_ pork.  And then you wouldn't be able to eat chicken anymore.  So you'd basically be vegetari—aaah!!"  He was cut off when Jack hit his cast, jarring his leg.

"And I still don't see how your reasoning works," Lia added, "as it would be a pig with chicken DNA, not vice versa."

"_Final call for Event sixty-eight, heat three,_" a voice interrupted over the PA.

"Gotta go," Daniel said quickly, jumping to his feet.  He half ran, half walked off in the direction of the blocks.

Jack grinned lopsidedly.  "I hope they let him in," she said thoughtfully.

Zack was confused.  "How do you know that it's your event?" he asked.

Jack held up her arm and twisted it so that he could see the paler skin of her forearm, where black permanent marker had inked out a grid with numbers in it.  "We write down our events, heats, and lanes before the meet begins so that we know what we're doing."  She tapped the first column.  "This one is for the event, this one for the heat, and this one for the lane."

"'Heat'?" Zack asked, confused.

"Yeah."  Lia had returned her attention to the conversation at hand.  "It's when you swim.  There're too many swimmers here for there to just be one race per event, so we break it up into multiple races called heats.  The slowest swimmers swim in the first heat, and the fastest in the last."

"Oh.  So Daniel would be—"

"I'm not really sure why he's swimming the 200 IM," Jack interrupted.  "But he is, and I'm going to go watch.  Who's with me?!"  There was a chorus of "Me!"s, and the group filed over to the end of the pool.

Zack, Lia, and Chris remained, the latter trying to figure out how to get back up again.

"Okay, that's it," Lia said, sounding a bit annoyed, after spending a few moments watching Chris struggle.  She pulled him ungracefully to his good foot (while trying not to overbalance), and then tugged Zack up after her.  "If you're just going to sit there, you might as well do something."

"Lia, he's not sitting any more."

"Exactly."

As the strange teen pulled the two boys after her, Zack watched as Chris shot him a confused—and slightly worried—look.  After all, he _was_ half hopping along to keep up with the fast-paced girl.

"_Swimmers, take your marks_," the monotone voice called out.  Glancing over, Zack noticed that every single one of the male swimmers had grabbed the front of the starting blocks.  Every muscle was tensed, waiting to be released.

The buzzer went off, and the men sprang, flying out over the water.  The race was on.

Cheers roared up suddenly, and though each was loud for the other teams, it seemed that Daniel's name was projected louder than anyone else's.  He grinned, thinking that if it were he swimming at that moment, he would be laughing.

Zack realized with a jolt that Lia had managed to snake away from him, and he half jogged, half limped to catch up.

Nudging his way past a group of wet teenagers, he managed to bump into one, and Zack was sent tumbling to the ground, as the girl was much taller than he.

"Oh, jeez, I'm so sorry," she said, helping him up.  Her hair had been let down from her cap to cascade around her body in dark, wet curls.  Her eyes were a bright blue color, and angled slightly, so as to appear almond shaped.  Zack felt as though he had been hit in the stomach with a frying pan.

_It was the girl from the black void._

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

*A 200 IM, by Nova: It's a medley of all four strokes.  First Butterfly, then backstroke, followed by breaststroke, and finally freestyle (except for medley relays, where it goes back breast fly free, but we won't get into that unless someone wants us to.)

So…that's chapter six!  In chapter seven, we find out the identity of this person, a little romance/fluff leaks through, the gang goes to Burgerville, and Zack gets his first introduction to Skyview High School.

Thank you for all your wonderful reviews!

**Pyra:** Pyro hasn't lit anything on fire for a while, anyway…she spent most of today [that would be Jan. 8th] giggling…

I've been watching your reviews on my stories…the coffee one was too much like Pyro for my liking…let me tell you this: never mix a swim meet, a permanent marker (preferably Sharpie brand), and a 12 oz. coffee with Nova.  It has disastrous affects, including people coming home with interesting pictures on their backs…or shoulders…arms…hands…legs…feet…face…

**tringle:** I noticed!  Lol…against your will?  I'm sorry.  My parents drag me everywhere, and threaten much more interesting places (Blaine, Minnesnowta [aka: Minnesota], Rome, Arizona…).

Three months?  Do you really think I need that many?  I'll try…finals are coming up, so I need to study and do lots of homework to prepare for them…and after that is the dreaded WASL testing, which I'm know you'll have to do too…if you're a sophomore, that is…

Oh, and I figured out where Yelm is…hehehe…

**HERMIONE POTTER 5000:** I'm glad that it helped you.  It certainly helped a few of my friends, and even more certainly confused a good deal more!

**Lucy-Liza:** Yay, a long review!  I'm glad that you understand everything now.  Things will start to move along at a faster pace now that almost all the characters have been introduced (hehehe…).  No, the one who has the creepy blue eyes is Nik, although Daniel does have blue eyes.  I chose the name Lia with no intentions of it being similar to Princess Lia (although I don't think that's spelled right—I always thought it was Leaha or something like that—I'll look it up later); I simply chose it because it's similar to my own nick-name (which I'm not going to tell) and altered a few of the letters of her full name: Lianne.  And yes, Pyro really _is_ fire happy…

The boys of the group will start having more parts, which means more Zack/Harry sections.  They're so much fun to write…

**hermione_granger:** Yes, the chapter did take a bit, but at least it's out.  And hopefully the rest of the chapters won't end up quite so long…

**Makenzie: **Something bad will happen.  You just have to be patient.

Yours are already done?  No fair!  Ours are at the end of January…~*pouts*~

I have the feeling that your friends might (_might_) be freakier than mine…

**MorgynMerlin:** I'm so happy that my story strikes you as amusing…I was hoping that it would!  After all, it _is_ categorized (yes, that's a made up word) under humor.

**Athena02:** It's Nik, not Niko, and no, he's not based on Legolas.

The whole my friends writing sections of it is fun for me.  It allows me to use my creativity to write my story around the stuff that they've written.  For example: we had an English assignment in which we had to write a short story using something (I won't tell you what, as it's a HUGE spoiler) that we'd written a while ago.  I annoyed my friends to death with the ending (as it's perhaps _the_ worst cliffy that I've ever written!  Well, worst/best…you get the point), but anyway…the only case that I _wouldn't_ put something in is if I don't like the way that it's written/it doesn't appertain to what I want to do with DML.  So…yah…

Thanks to anyone I missed!


	7. Chapter Seven: Something's Missing

Chapter Seven-Something's Missing  
"_Air is a precious commodity."  
Jessakah "Jack" Gilligan_

"Fourteen days till we go back to Hogwarts," Ron commented from the kitchen. Hermione stuck her head in. Her hair had been pulled into a messy bun with loose curls cascading down the back of her head and neck, a very pretty look for her, Ron thought privately.

"Pardon me?" she asked.

"Two weeks. Fourteen days."

"Three-hundred-thirty-six hours, twenty-thousand-one-hundred-sixty minutes," George input.

"One-million-two-hundred-nine-thou—"

"Shut up, Fred," Ron said, throwing an apple to his older brother, aiming for his chest.

George snatched it out of the air somewhere near the vicinity of his own head, eyebrows raised. "I see why you weren't recruited onto the quidditch team after all," he said impishly. Ron's face fell at the mention of his and the rest of the wizarding world's favorite sport. It caused him to remember that Harry wouldn't be there for the start of term…ever again….

Hermione took a deep breath and attempted to brush it aside. "Have you finished your summer homework yet?"

"Bugger!" Ron swore, and groaned loudly. "I can't believe I forgot!"

With a small smile, Hermione murmured, "I can." After grabbing an apple from the bowl sitting on the center of the very cluttered island, she sat down at the kitchen table and began to read _The Advanced Book of Spells (Grade 7)_.

&

Jack watched with anticipation as Daniel flipped at the same time as the boy in the lane next to him. She prayed that the other guy sucked at turns. To her delight, Daniel came out in front, and sped down the lane to the end of the pool.

"Go!" she shrieked, her throat beginning to hurt from all the yelling she had done that day. He was nearly there. The boy in the next lane was catching up. The were going to tie!—

The scoreboard read _Lane 3— 2:13.55_, and a few seconds later _Lane 4—2:14.03_. He had done it! Daniel won!

Feeling relief flood through her body, Jack looked up and saw Zack being helped up by someone that she hadn't seen for a long time. _Maybe I'll go chat later,_ Jack thought as she jogged to the blocks to give her boyfriend a hug.

&

"Chris, do you see Celeste anywhere?"

"Nope…hey, where'd Zack go?"

"I dunno…oh, look, there she is! Let's go talk to her."

"Okay. This time, _I'm_ setting the pace; you walk too fast!"

"Is it my fault that you're on crutches? Wait…don't answer that…"

&

Zack gaped at the girl who stood in front of him, her arm outstretched, a friendly smile on her face. "I don't bite," she promised with a laugh. Zack continued to stare.

"Hey!" Jack's voice called out. Startled, Zack swiveled on the ground to see her running up from behind. "How are you doing?" she asked, confusing the poor amnesiac even more before he realized that she wasn't talking to him.

"Jack!" the girl said, hugging the orange and blue haired teen. "I'm sorry about your race, but—"

"What are you talking about?"

"Inad beat you. Didn't you know?"

"Inad's here?" Jack sounded surprised.

_Uh oh,_ Zack thought suddenly, seeing Inad _and_ Kirsten suddenly close by.

"Celeste!"

"_Lia_!" Lia swooped up on the girl from the black void of his dreams and hugged her fiercely. "How've you been? How's Chris?"

Zack was now very, _very_ confused. Hadn't she been with Chris a few moments ago?

"He's sad that he can't see me as often any more, but he's good."

"Zack!" The amnesiac jumped as Lia addressed him suddenly. "What are you doing down there?"

"I ran into him," the girl said sheepishly.

Lia laughed. "This is Celeste," she said, introducing the girl. "Celeste, this is Zack."

Celeste—if that was really her name, as Zack felt that he knew from somewhere beyond the black void—grinned at him. "I'm sorry for knocking you over," she told him. "You know what? You look really familiar. Have we met before?"

"I-I don't know," Zack stammered. He paused for a moment before adding, "I don't remember anything before meeting Jack and Lia."

"Oh? Why is that?"

"Do you _really_ need to ask?" Jack asked her, grinning evilly at Lia.

Lia opened her mouth to interrupt before Chris' hand swooped from behind and clamped over her mouth. "You know that her driving skills are worse than yours ever were! Anyways—"

A very muffled, "Hey!" came from Lia.

"That's not very nice," Celeste scolded him, "considering you don't even have—"

"What is it with you people and picking on me!" Chris cried.

"Oh, I don't know," Lia said sarcastically, removing his hand from covering her mouth, "maybe it has to do with the fact that you always let everyone push your buttons!"

"I do not!"

"Too."

"Not!"

"Too."

"Not!"

"You wanna keep this up?" Zack watched with amusement as Lia attempted to pull her arm from his grasp and couldn't. "I can keep this up for longer than you can! I have two brothers that are fifteen, you know!"

"And I am how old?"

"_Two_, dummy, _two_!" Lia exclaimed, holding up her left arm with her index and middle fingers sticking up in the air.

"Inad," Jack said in greeting. Zack turned away from Lia and Chris' fight to watch Jack's reaction.

"Hello, Jack. Great race!"

"Maybe for you," Jack growled.

Inad smiled at her, her blue eyes sparkling innocently. "Whatever do you mean by that, Jessakah?"

Jack sighed, and Zack nearly laughed out loud. Maybe the remainder of the meet wouldn't be so bad after all if there were any more races the two girls were in together.

&

Jack sighed and continued to gaze into Daniel's deep blue eyes. The candlelight was flickering in a majestic dance, but neither teen seemed to notice.

A giggle broke the reverie as Lia watched Chris and Pyro doing something funny. Jack ignored them and continued to look at her boyfriend.

"Oh, look!" an unfamiliar voice said. "How sweet…remember when we used to be like that, Sam?"

"Yes, dear; young, silly, and very in love." Jack felt her cheeks warming, but ignored the older couple as effectively as she was ignoring the others.

Daniel finally broke contact to take another bite of his spaghetti. "Did you get any PRs today?"

"Yup." Jack took a sip of her Sprite and played with a few of the loose strands of her hair, which had been piled on top of her head. The chicken strips on her plate were half eaten, but she felt like she was done eating—for the meantime. She reached across the table and grabbed his now idle hand in her own and began to stroke the top of it with her thumb, an action that she knew drove him insane. The familiar look filled his eyes and he got up suddenly, throwing his napkin down.

The waitress came by with the check, and he paid for it out of his own wallet, something Jack didn't let him do very often; normally they split the charge.

Leaving the restaurant without notice from Lia, Pyro, and Chris was simple, but Jack knew Zack was slightly more observant. Winking to him as they left through the door, she knew that he wouldn't tell the others that they had left by way of the small smile that filled his face. It was good to know that she could trust him.

They kissed just outside the doors, and again in the entrance to the parking lot, and again against the car. The wind swirled Jack's red dress around her thighs, goosebumps rising all over her body at the exhilaration of kissing Daniel. She breathed him into her, tightening her hold around his waist.

"What have we told you two about taking detours?"

The teens sprang apart like startled rabbits, Jack going red and Daniel coughing nervously. Lia stood in front of Pyro, Chris, and Zack, her hands planted on her hips, her feet set at shoulder width. She was trying her best to look stern, but the laugh that was escaping her lips betrayed her true feelings.

"Lia!" Jack said, annoyed, but embarrassed. The four of them burst out laughing. Pyro and Chris were using each other to stay standing, Lia was leaning over, her hands propped on her thighs, and Zack was using a parked car as a support. Daniel and Jack glanced at each other.

"All in favor of mutilating those four?"

"Aye!"

&

Chris couldn't sleep. He supposed that he had eaten too much cherry pie that night at dinner.

_Or maybe it was Jack and Daniel running after us after we split them up,_ he thought with a slight grin. The couple had slipped out of their respective tents ages ago, so he was forced to sit there and battle with his aching leg while Zack slept quietly. In any case, he was too hyped up to do anything but lay there in the dark, watching light flickering from the neighboring tent and listening to hushed whispers coming from it. He guessed that Pyro and Lia were awake still as well. When a two stifled laughs came from that direction as well, he guessed that either Pyro was reading out loud, or that they were up talking about the contents of what had been in the note that they were passing back and forth in the car a few days ago.

_Do they know how annoying that actually is?_ he wondered, shifting his leg in hopes that it would feel better. It didn't work.

A sudden bright light erupted in the tent, causing Chris to jump and leaving him blinded for a few moments. His leg suddenly felt as though it was full of splinters, and he gasped with pain.

Daniel flashed the light over him again. "Sorry," he whispered. Chris noted dimly that there was what looked like lip-gloss on his lips and up the left side of his face. "Did I wake you up?"

"Nah," he rasped, resisting the urge to grab his leg and bang it against the ground. It was _really_ hurting him now! "I was already awake. My leg's buggin' me."

"Pyro probably has pain killers. You know how her mother is, being a nurse and all. I'll go grab some." 

Chris could see him grinning in the dark. "You're just doing that because it gives you another excuse to see Jack," he accused.

Daniel shrugged. "So what if I might get to see her not wearing anything but her p-jams?"

Chris sighed sadly and shook his head, nearly shaking with suppressed laughter.

&

**VWW: As I'm having a blast letting other people write parts of MY story, I thought that I might as well give other people a chance. The real Kirsten wrote this part.**

Kirsten slammed the door of her red Mustang convertible. She grabbed the blue bag with all her Kung Fu gear in it and walked into Moye's Kung Fu and Tai-Chi Academy. It was rare for her to go to Kung Fu on Monday night, but the anger that flared in Kirsten caused her to want to beat someone. She made the proper salute as she walked in to the school and slipped off her pink flip-flops.

"Hey, Kirsten," Thomas, a short boy of fourteen said as she headed to the back to put her shoes on the shoe rack.

Kirsten nodded hello, not in the mood to chat with Thomas. In fact, she wasn't in the mood to talk to anyone at that moment. The angry teen rummaged through her bag and found her green-brown belt. She'd be going for her brown belt in November of that year. She'd been working hard for almost three years to earn her brown belt and within the next year she hoped to have her black belt.

After the first hour of class was over, Kirsten put on all her Kung Fu gear and was ready to spar. Her anger had begun to boil, and Kirsten knew that the sparring would help to diminish her anger somewhat. She ignored Thomas and tried not to glare at Vicki, her nemesis, during class. To the blond's dismay, Vicki was her first partner for sparring that night.

Kirsten aimed a punch at Vicki and hit her nose with full force. Immediately, red blood began to run from the offended appendage. Vicki threw off her gloves and put her hands over her nose, groaning. Kirsten stepped back and stared; she had never lost control like that before.

"Kirsten, may I speak with you?" Sifu, the teacher, asked. Nodding miserably, Kirsten followed him to a part of the room where they could speak in private. "You've never lost control like that before," he pointed out. "Heavy sparring is for the advanced class only, Kirsten. You know that. Now you need to slow down and concentrate. I don't want to have to make you sit out of sparring. You need to keep control of yourself and whatever problems you have with Vicki are to be forgotten while you're in class."

Kirsten nodded again, feeling her face redden with shame.

"Now, go help Vicki clean up the mess, and next time don't lose control."

"Yes, Sifu," Kirsten replied, and headed to the bathroom to get the disinfectant so she could help Vicki clean the blood off the mat.

Kirsten remained angry for the rest of class, but with no one more than Vicki. She tossed her gear into her bag, trying unsuccessfully to rid herself of more anger.

_Stop yelling! You're giving me a headache!_ a voice suddenly scolded in her head. Kirsten sighed.

_Sorry, Inad. I didn't realize I was yelling at you._

_What are you so angry about?_

_Oh, nothing. I'm just pissed at Vicki again._

_What'd she do this time?_

Kirsten grabbed her flip-flops so forcefully from the shoe rack that she nearly broke the cubby boards. _She stole Jake!_

_Kirsten, he broke up with you in April._

Silence echoed almost painfully in her mind as Kirsten refused to speak. The last time that someone had mentioned the breakup between Kirsten and Jake, Lia nearly got punched in the face. Everyone knew from that moment on that Kirsten was still obsessed with her ex, but she refused to admit it. So no one mentioned his name around her.

_How do you know she's going out with him?_

Kirsten explained seeing him and the little Bitca when she was at Fred Meyer's, shopping for monkey socks with Baskin ("I only have thirty pairs! That's nowhere near enough!")

_I'm sorry, Kirsten._

_All guys are scum,_ Kirsten thought back bitterly.

_No they aren't. Zack doesn't seem that bad._

Kirsten sighed. She gained a few strange looks from the people around her in the changing area, but, as usual, she ignored them. Instead, she pulled off the top to her Kung Fu outfit. _I guess you're right._

Hey, maybe you should ask him to homecoming in October! He probably won't have a date, because he's too shy and you're too mad at every guy to have a date anyways. It'll be perfect!

_Why do you always have to point out my faults?_

_It's my job as your best friend. Come on; let's go to Burgerville. A milkshake will make you feel better._

_Okay. See you in ten minutes?_

_Deal._ Kirsten finished changing into her pink tank top that matched her flip-flops and pulled on a pair of khaki shorts.

After waving goodbye to Thomas, earning a smile from her short friend, she saluted and headed out to her car. In Kirsten's opinion, it was the best car in the world. She had worked for two summers to earn enough money to buy it and her parents agreed to pay for gas and insurance if she bought it.

A few minutes later, Kirsten pulled into the parking lot of Burgerville. Inad was just stepping out of her truck. Kirsten waved at her friend. Inad ran up to her and they walked into the fast food restaurant together. They found Lia and Zack standing at the counter, ordering some food.

"Hey Lia! Zack!" Inad hollered. "Why aren't Chris or Jack with you? Or Pyro?"

"He was complaining about his leg, so Jack and Pyro took him home. I volunteered to bring Zack here. Can you believe he's never had a milkshake before!"

"Lia, he can't even remember his real name. How would he remember if he's had a milkshake before?" Kirsten pointed out.

"Ahh…that's a good point…Zack, since you've already ordered, why don't you go find us a table to sit at."

The Brit agreed and walked away to find someplace where the four of them could sit.

"Umm…I think I should get an extra large strawberry milkshake with extra whipped cream," Kirsten said, looking at the menu.

"Oh, dear. What happened?" Lia asked Inad, knowing Kirsten's habit of drinking strawberry milkshakes whenever she got depressed, or she saw Vicki practically dangling off of Jake.

_She saw Vicki with Jake,_ Inad confirmed, mouthing the words over Kirsten's shoulder. Lia grimaced and nodded.

Once the three girls had finished ordering and had paid for the food and milkshakes, they headed back to the booth where Zack was sitting. Lia distributed the various items and they began to eat. Zack's face lit up as he bit into his bacon Tillamook cheeseburger, and Kirsten's mood improved drastically with each sip of her milkshake.

"So Lia, you gonna ask Chris to homecoming again?" Kirsten asked, taking another gulp of her milkshake.

Lia's ears and cheeks began to turn red. "Um…I dunno. School hasn't even started yet!"

"Well, anyways, all guys are jerks, so I don't see why you would even bother," Kirsten added quickly, waving a hand and digging into her milkshake once more.

&

Zack watched the three friends talk. He just couldn't understand the Americans; they were all so sarcastic! It seemed that they were either fighting or joking, but the Brit could never tell.

Perhaps he would never understand the teens.

&

Lia glanced warily around the waiting room of the hospital. She had never been here before—had hoped and prayed that she would never have to—and it was strange to her, almost alien in its perfectly clean state. St. Christopher's hadn't even been _this_ clean.

To her surprise, she spotted Chris, Zack, and Matt on the other side of the waiting room, so she got up and walked over to them. "Hey!" she greeted them, grinning. Chris looked up from his swimming magazine and gave her a smile that nearly made her melt on the spot.

"Hi! What are you doing here?"

Lia held up her bandaged arm. "My doctor told me that I should go to the hospital to get my stitches removed, unless she wanted either her to do it without pain killing stuff or me to do it on my own. I told her she could make me scream in pain on some other day."

Chris and Zack laughed. Matt gave her his normally stony glare, which Lia stuck her tongue out to.

"They're taking a look at my leg," Chris told her. "It's been feeling really weird for the past few days. Monday it felt as though someone had taken the bone and broken it into little splinters and then jabbed them into interesting places in my muscles. Yesterday it abruptly stopped hurting…it was really weird."

"I think that all that chlorine's gone to your head," Matt told him.

"Why are you still here?" Lia shot at him, giving him a strange look. "I thought that you moved out."

"He did," Zack and Chris said in unison. "He came back."

"His girlfriend kicked him out," Chris added with an evil grin.

Matt glared at him.

Chris gave him a smile, which earned him a slap on the head.

Zack squinted as he watched it all.

"Have you ever considered that you might need glasses?" Lia asked him.

Zack gave her a strange look. "Perhaps once or twice," he admitted. "But it's not like I can't see without them. I don't want to be a burden to the Grahams."

"They'll probably check you and give you a free pair if you tell them that you don't have your memory and that you're staying with friends," Lia told him. "If not, we'll get Cait—that's Pyro's mom—to pull some strings."

"Why would she be able to do what the doctors couldn't?" Zack asked, confused.

"It's not that they wouldn't be able to," Lia said slowly, tucking a stray hair behind her ear, "rather than not wanting to. Cait is an OR nurse here; she might be able to talk them into giving you a pair."

"OR?"

"Operating Room," Chris stuck in.

"Right."

"Graham, Florence," a voice called over the PA.

Lia grinned. "Looks like we're up," she stated, and walked up to the front desk to check in. A friendly looking nurse took her by the elbow and chatted her ear off as she escorted Lia to a small room to be examined. Chris was escorted right across the hall.

"Well, Ms. Florence," the doctor said, coming in and checking the folder that the nurse had left in a box in front of the door. "What seems to be the problem?"

"Oh, no problem," Lia told her, and pointed to her arm. "I just need the stitches removed—painlessly, please. I'm a bit of a wuss, sadly enough."

The doctor laughed.

"Well, we'll need to take x-rays again," Lia heard from across the hall as her doctor unwrapped the bandage from her arm. She averted her gaze as she saw gauze begin to appear and instead watched the scene in the next room. Chris sat on the examining table, his leg propped up on a chair. Matt was standing out of sight, but Zack was sitting in a chair near the door with his back to her.

_He needs a haircut,_ she noted, seeing that the bottom of his messy hair just brushed his shirt collar. _We should buy him one before school starts._

Chris sighed loudly. "Okay."

Lia grinned, and swore when the doctor pulled at one of the ties on her arm. She resisted looking, though, and was slightly startled when Zack turned around, and Chris looked over at her. She grinned sheepishly, but held still.

"This hasn't healed completely," her doctor said, bringing her back to the room. Lia looked up at her, trying to ignore her repulsion at the paleness of her arm already, and the disgusting looking wound. It wasn't that it was infected or anything, but the sight of the stitches just grossed her out. "It's well on its way, though. You say it doesn't hurt anymore when people poke it or you get jostled?"

Lia agreed with her.

The doctor thought for a moment. "I guess I could remove them. You'd have to be extremely careful not to re-open the wound, though. It's already going to be a nasty scar, and you may never have full use of your arm again."

&

Chris froze as he heard the uttered words from the doctor across the hall, and stopped listening to what his brother was telling _his_ doctor at the look on Lia's face.

"What do you mean?"

The doctor crossed the room and closed the door just as Lia yelped, "What the _hell_ do you mean!"

"Oh, no," he groaned, burying his face in his hand. He knew that he would have full control of his leg again, as it was only the bone that broke, but not knowing for weeks, perhaps even months whether her arm would be useful again…?

Chris noticed that Zack was being more quiet than usual.

"I can't help but feel bad for her," he muttered.

"I know," Chris agreed.

"Okay, Christopher," his doctor said, snapping shut a notebook and putting it on the counter. "X-rays."

"Could you do me a favor?" Chris asked her irritably.

"Sure."

"Don't call me Christopher."

&

"I can't believe you!" the blond screamed.

"Whaaaaat?" Her boyfriend threw up his arms in exasperation. "It's not like _you_ didn't do anything wrong, either!"

"I hate this movie," Daniel said thoughtfully into Jack's ear. Jack rolled her eyes and threw a piece of popcorn at him.

"I know, they obviously don't," she said, gesturing to the screen.

A toe-tapping song suddenly filled the area, Jack's ringtone, accompanied by dirty looks.

"I really wish your mother wouldn't call you when she knows we're at the theater," Daniel told Jack as the teen tore through her purse, looking for her phone. She finally found it, and without looking at the screen to see who it was, answered it.

"Mom, don't call me when you know I'm at the movies!" she hissed angrily.

"Oh, so now I'm your _mother_?" Chris' voice said.

"Oops…heh…hi, Chris. Chris, don't call me when you know I'm at the movies!"

"She called you _Mom_!" Lia's voice said in the background, filled with humor.

_Great. Juuuuuuuust great…_

"Yeah," Chris answered her with a laugh.

"What's going on?" Daniel asked, trying to grab the phone from Jack. She evaded his reach by grabbing his wrist and leaning away.

"What are you two doing? I thought that Lia was going to get her stitches removed and that you were going to get your leg checked on."

"Funny, that," Zack's voice said. He must have taken the cell from Chris.

"Gimme!" Jack heard Lia say in the background. "That's not fair—I'm still in a bandage! Ow!"

"He's running off," Zack told Jack, laughing.

"Running? He can barely walk right!"

"The doctor took his cast off."

"_What_!"

"Shh!" Everyone in the audience was now turned around glaring at her. Jack sighed in remorse; it appeared that they weren't going to get to see the end of the movie after all.

Grabbing Daniel by the collar of his shirt and heading for the stairs, she continued to hiss into the phone, "How is that possible? Last I heard, he was supposed to be in a cast for the next six months!"

"Huh?" Daniel asked, confused. Jack ignored him.

"Er…I have no idea what's going on. What I do know—"

Jack heard the sound of the cell dropping, and the line went dead.

Once outside, she relayed to Daniel what information she knew.

"Well, what are we going to do?" he asked her, taking a sip of his drink. He had somehow managed to bring it with him during their wild escape from the theater.

"Wait until they call back."

"How are they going to do that on a dead phone?"

"Knowing them, it was Lia's cell that they were using, and you know how flimsy the back is on that stupid thing. The battery probably just fell out."

Sure enough, the familiar song of her cell went off and, checking it, it had Lia's number on it.

"Lia?"

"Wrong again!" Chris' voice said cheerfully.

"Whoever, care to fill me in on what happened?"

"Zack ran into a row of seats and dropped the phone. They're checking his eyesight right now."

"And?"

"The doctor keeps muttering under his breath and writing stuff down on his notepad. Hey, how come St. Chris' had such evil nurses and SWW has all the nice people?"

"That's just the way things worked out, I guess. Hey, you know what, not only are you God, you're a saint as well!"

"What?"

"St. Christopher!"

"Ha. Ha. Ha. _So_ funny."

"Yeeess, I know. Oh, back to the whole you're walking without a cast, etc. thing."

"They x-rayed me—"

"I don't think that's a word," Lia's voice said in the background.

"Well, it is now," Chris told her. "Anyways—ouch! Lia, don't hit me so hard!—the reason my leg has been feeling so weird is because it's completely healed. No scars, no damage to the bone, no nothing. It's as if it never happened."

Jack gaped. "That's impossible."

"That's what the doctors are saying. Lia screamed at them for ten minutes before they let me out finally."

"But…it's impossible!"

"What's impossible?" Daniel asked.

"Jack," Chris said warningly.

She sighed and gave the phone over to Daniel, and watched his expression go from confused to flabbergasted.

"That's impossible!…No, Chris, it's still not possible!…"

Jack held out her hand in request for her cell back. Daniel turned around so that he was no longer looking at her. "Chris—I don't care!"

Jack sighed in frustration and jumped on Daniel's back to try and retrieve her phone. Daniel yelled and leaned forward in an attempt to keep his balance, while Jack grabbed her cell from his grasp.

"We'll meet up with you and carry this 'it's just not possible!' later. It's costing me minutes."

"Whatever," Lia's voice said. "I'm going to go home and pout about the fact that _he_ gets to go swimming tomorrow and I don't."

Jack rolled her eyes. "I'll see ya then."

"Yeah. Buh-bye."

&

Zack felt strangely small as he entered into the school. The ceiling stretched up…and up…and up…until it met in a glass panneled roof that let the midmorning sun pour into the area. Students were milling around everywhere, running from the right side, past a sunken area in the floor where someone had placed sad excuses for couches, to the left, disappearing past what looked like the end of a very long line.

"Not bad," Chris commented, staring at the line with a look of slight fear. "I really hope that Pyro or someone saved us a spot."

Zack pushed his new glasses up his nose. It was a nice change to be able to see things clearly rather than just be able to make out shapes.

"You'll get to meet the rest of the gang, too."

"What?" Zack said, startled. "There's _more_ of you guys!"

Chris laughed and began forward. "It's not like there are that many of us. You've met the bulk of us already, I think. Oh, look, there's Lia."

Zack glanced up and down the line, but he didn't see the trademark curls of the teen. "Where?"

"She straightened her hair. You'll see her in a minute."

They walked over to her and Zack saw that Chris was right; she was still the same loud, rowdy girl as before, only with straight hair and really nice clothes on. Her shirt was deep red and ruffled in the very front, and she wore platform black shoes that put her at seven inches or so above his five feet.

"Hey, guys," she said, slightly grumpy. Perhaps it was the fact that Chris was now crutch-less. Perhaps it was the fact that it was still early—9:00 in the morning, in fact. Or perhaps it was the fact that she was wearing a skirt.

"Who got you into that?" Chris asked, bewildered.

"The same person who did my hair."

"And that would be…?"

Lia crossed her arms—or attempted to, at least, as she still wore her ace bandage—and jerked her head in the direction of a girl who looked to be Chris' age chatting loudly with Jack and Pyro.

"Kels went to your house?"

"Jack drove her. I think she's trying to prove a point, but I don't know what it is."

"Jack's always trying to prove a point."

"I heard that," Jack's voice said. The three teens turned and looked at her, and Jack laughed. "It was quite funny, actually. That's the skirt that she bought for Tolo last year and only wore once."

"Tolo?" Zack asked.

"It's one of the dances that we have here," Lia explained, glaring at her friend and going slightly pink. "Tolo is the opposite of every other dance, though; it's not formal, the girl asks the guy, and the girl pays. _Somebody_, though, doesn't seem to catch that last concept."

"Which reminds me," Chris said, suddenly digging into his back pocket. He pulled out his wallet and forked out two bills. "Here you go."

"Nope. Not taking it."

"Take it!"

"Nope. I already told you, I paid, end of story! I owed you for the movie, remember?"

"Take it!"

Poor Zack was really confused now. Jack pulled him aside and whispered, "Lia asked him to Tolo last year and insisted on paying for the whole thing. It drove all of us nuts, actually, since they battled it to the ground about who was going to pay, and since she already did, he's been trying to pay her back for the past six months."

This triggered a memory. "Was that what you were all talking about when we were still at the hospital? What had happened last year?"

Jack frowned. "Maybe…wait, did Lia get really embarrassed about it?"

"Yes."

"Oh." Jack laughed. "No, that was about Homecoming. We teased her really badly about that for a while, and when she showed us that she was _quite_ serious, we laid back a bit. Anyways, she asked him to Tolo, we all went in a group, and had a great time."

"Right." Zack ran one of his hands through his hair.

"I still think we should have gotten you a haircut before we had pictures taken."

Zack frowned. "We're getting pictures taken? I thought that we were just coming here for schedule pick-ups."

"Nope! Why do you think that all the girls are in nice clothes, have gone to the effort of doing their hair, and are wearing make-up, and half of them are wearing perfume?"

Zack realized how foolish his thinking had been. Then, "Why are they wearing perfume if you can't smell it after the picture's been taken?"

Jack laughed again. "You and Lia are on the same page, I guess. She _always_ bitches about that."

"Hmm." Zack turned back to look at Lia, and saw that the normally curly-haired girl was tugging impatiently on a strand of hair and twisting it around one finger, as though she still had her curls.

"Lia, stop it!" the girl Chris had called Kels told her. "You'll curl it up again."

"Will not."

"Yeah, it will!"

"Kels, I think I know my hair well enough to know that it won't curl when I twist my finger around it. See?" She released the strand and pointed to it. It curled up slightly at the end. Lia grabbed the offending strand and stared at it, cross-eyed and annoyed, while everyone else laughed.

"I _told_ you," Kels told her pointedly. "Do we need to go fix it?"

"No!" Lia shouted, backing hurriedly away from her friend and bumping into Zack, sending them both flying.

"Ouch!"

"Jeez!" Lia commented, wind milling her arms wildly and finally falling onto her butt. She quickly leaned forward and planted her hands on her skirt, most likely to prevent any of the perverted new freshman, the new sophomores, et cetera, from having a look. Her face was also a brilliant pink. "I seem to be doing this a lot this year," she murmured so softly that Zack barely caught the comment.

"Are you okay?" Zack asked.

"Yeah," Lia said in a slightly sad tone of voice, and got to her feet once more. "My arm's hurting again, though…"

"Maybe that means it's going to rain," Chris said.

"That's with joints and bones, silly, not muscles and skin," Lia corrected him. "And this is Washington—it _always_ rains."

"Why is it the joints?"

"Do you want the smart scientific version or the I'm-stupid-and-not-in-SMT version?"

Chris glared sarcastically at her.

"Actually," Jack said, "It's easy—it's air pressure."

"Okay," Chris said, drawing out the word.

Lia sighed exasperatedly. "Never mind…"

The silence between the teens was broken by the other conversations around them, which gave Zack another chance to look around the school.

The cafeteria was huge, with a balcony overlooking it from the upper floor. An absurd amount of tables were lining the space between a small stage and the wall to a store. Although Zack squinted, he couldn't make out the name of it.

"The four-hundred wing is over there," Chris told him quietly. Then he pointed towards the middle of the cafeteria. "That's the six-hundred wing—the SMTers dominated it years ago, and they get really mad when general classes invade. It's kind of funny, actually, when other classes need to use it…we normally get kicked out, because we're 'disturbing the quiet of the wing'." 

"Well," Lia butted in, "you do, the majority of the time. _And_ they break our computers!"

"Remind me who got kicked out of that wing almost every day last year after school for the sole reason that they were being too loud."

Lia glared.

Zack was confused. "What, she stayed after and was made to leave?"

Chris laughed. "She and her boyfriend and Celeste and _her_ boyfriend would stay after almost every day. She ended up getting kicked out within half-an-hour to forty minutes of being in there."

"It wasn't just us," Lia said in a hurt tone of voice. "Sometimes some of the juniors would be in there, too!"

The line moved forward drastically, and they passed out of sight of the cafeteria.

"How old is your school?" Zack asked, curiously. Even though he had nothing to compare it to (at least, nothing he could remember), he wanted to know about the school.

Lia did some quick calculating on her fingers, to which Chris laughed. "Umm…I think this is the eighth year they've been open. The first year—it's known as Bloodbath, or something like that—Skyview was home to all the freshmen in the district." She grinned evilly. "As you can tell from some of the more damaged wings, those who weren't going to Skyview regularly didn't take to it too well. It's like trying to put Hitler and his Nazis in a room full of Jews: some people just won't make it out 'alive.'"

They all laughed, and Lia had to turn around to claim her schedule. She swore lightly under her breath as she read it. "Dammit, they just _won't _let me leave, will they? Oh, well…half a semester of stupid Research…damn, damn, damn…." She continued her cussing rampage in the direction of the vending machines as she walked towards two sets of open doors, through which Zack could see wooden floors.

"The gym," Chris told him, snatching his own schedule from the pile, glancing at it, and shoving it into his pocket. Then, leaving Zack to his own devices, he walked through the doors after Lia, Pyro, and Jack, pulling a check from one of his other pockets.

"Last name, dear?" Zack jumped and turned to look at the lady behind the table, who was giving him a strange look.

"Er…Zack," he told her.

"L through Z is over there," she said in an annoyed voice.

"No, my name is just Zack."

"L through—"

"Ma'am, he doesn't remember his name at all. He's going by Zack for the meantime," Daniel's voice said from behind him. Zack turned around and saw that the tall blond boy was walking over, his keys twirling on the finger of one hand in idle boredom.

"What?"

Zack sighed and buried his face in his hands. He had the feeling that the next few weeks were going to be _very_ interesting.

* * *

Yay! Done! Okay, in chapter 8, school starts, Hogwarts gets a _very_ interesting program installed (so to say), and a strange and perhaps deadly occurrence…well, occurs…  
I've had a few people question this in confusion already. If you still don't understand what is meant by "the black void of his dreams", please refer to chapters 2 and 5.  
SWW is the main hospital here in Vancouver. Its full name is Southwest Washington Medical Center, for those who are curious.  
SMT stands for Science, Math, Technology. It's a magnet program at Skyview, in which students focus on the aspects of SMT and learn how to apply them more so than the "general" classes. The classes are slightly more advanced; for example, I took Physics and Chemistry my freshman year. Physics sucked…chem. was fun!  
Thanks to everyone who reviewed! I'm too lazy to do replies this time….

12/05/05: For those who have read this story before and are confused as to why things seem to be missing from this chapter, I'm tying up loose plot lines to try to have some semblance to a story. This is why certain things are missing (the intergetions from the beta and other people, for example). If you wish to see the story in its entirety, feel free to e-mail me at 


	8. Chapter Eight: Falling Away

A/N: Sorry this took so long to get out.  I know I should have had it out a long time ago…things happened, as they always seem to do.  I was very proud of Nova on the quick editing job she did on this—she'd had it for, what, three weeks (?), and then I gave her a new copy (with the old stuff, too), and BAM!!  I had it in my hands by the end of the day.  So, quick thank-you to Nova.

Dedicated to Inad and Chris, who are no longer among us.

…Erm, in case you were wondering, no, they didn't die; they just moved.  ^.^;;

**D/C:**  This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books, and Warner Bros., Inc.  No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.

[Insert long list of names here that's posted in chapter five, which I can't (for some reason) access right now…] are based upon actual people, but their names have been changed to protect the actual persons from a life of fame and wealth (hah!  You wish…).

"Talking inside of each other's heads" was made up by the real Kirsten and Inad.  They came up with it freshman year.  I have yet to figure out whether they actually do it or not.

The majority of the comments in this story actually came from the people that are said to have said them.  A few were added by me, but I won't tell you which ones, 'cuz that would spoil the whole story.  ~*sticks out tongue*~

TCTU/Crimson Rain is a band.  All of their stuff is © by Heather Perry, myself, Kevin Fine, and Curtis McCallistar.

//…\\ means that it's a memory…

Chapter Eight-Falling Away

_"You live under a mask/A façade with no cracks/But now your wall is crumbling/Falling away."_

_~Crimson Rain, _Falling Away

_BEEP!  BEEP!  BEEP!  BEEP!_

Chris jolted upright at the sound of his alarm going off.  His heart felt like it was going a mile a minute, while his brain slowly adjusted to the harsh realities of life.

It was 6:00 in the morning.

Zack was still dead asleep, snoring slightly.

School would start in one hour and twenty-five minutes.  Chris glanced at his clock.  _Well, twenty-four, now…_.

With a sigh, he got out of bed and slammed a hand down on the alarm on the way to Zack's bed, which was still screaming its wake-up call.  It droned on for a second, and then seemed to die slowly as it wailed its objection to his hitting it so hard.  Chris glanced at it: it now read 88:88.

Today was just not his day.

After waking Zack, which took a lot of persuasion on his part to get the Brit to even hear him, he rescued his cat from the back of his closet, and unplugged his now broken alarm clock, which was now making noises randomly.  He dressed slowly and carefully, making sure that his clothes were clean and he had matching socks; he wasn't in the mood to get made fun of that day.

Finding a pair of shoes was a totally different matter.  One from each of his three pairs were missing, and each from the same foot.  He suspected Matt, his older brother, but after finding half of a shoelace somewhere between his room and the kitchen, he had a new suspect.

And sure enough, the culprit had fallen asleep, drool from her mouth forming a puddle over the front of one of the missing shoes.  Chris sighed for the second time that morning, removed his stupid little Corgi from the pile of shoes she had collected from the various occupants of the house, and sorted through to find his other two.

Breakfast was scary.  Someone had left the milk on the table from supper the night before, and it now tasted kind of funny.  Chris hoped it wasn't rotten, put it in the fridge where it belonged, and grabbed a bagel instead.

Zack meandered into the kitchen, rubbing his eyes and putting his glasses on.  He mumbled good morning and promptly tripped over the hem of his too-large jeans.  Chris jumped out of the way so that he wouldn't land on the Brit if he completely lost his balance and managed to drop his bagel, which landed right onto his other dog, who was quite pleased with the treat.

"Why me?" Chris yelled, ignoring the snore from the again asleep Zack.

~&~

On the other side of the world, in a land eight hours or so ahead of Chris and his friends, two students were also fighting away sleep with little success.  Ron and Hermione had been going to classes for four full days already and were again used to the task of getting up earlier than their 9:00 schedule during the summer (or 10:30, in Ron's case).  History of Magic hadn't gotten any less boring over the summer, just as Professor Binns hadn't gotten any less dead.

Hermione idly twisted her quill around in her hand, feeling the fletching of the feather brush lightly against the top of her hand.  She had had it sent to her by her parents, another gift for becoming Head Girl.  She hadn't enjoyed the job as much as she thought she would, though.  No, it wasn't a popularity contest, as she hoped against hope it wouldn't be, but everything had tightened up now that Harry was gone, from going out onto the grounds to the Hogsmeade trips, which had been restricted now to fifth years and up.  It just wasn't safe anymore.

The bell sounded, signaling the end of the class, and the students morosely packed their things into the bulging bags and headed back up to Gryffindor tower.  Ron and Hermione lagged behind the rest, their low murmuring barely audible to even each other.    Hermione was mostly remembering when Ron had stormed down to lunch earlier that day, furious at Professor Trelawney and her stupid predictions.

"She's done it again!" he had roared.  The table was silent.  Hermione just stared at her plate, knowing almost instinctively what he was going to say.  "That overgrown bat keeps getting—"

Hermione stopped him in mid sentence with a sigh and tugged him into a chair.  "I know that she's making predictions about Voldemort and…Harry," she told him, choking out Harry's name, "but that doesn't mean that you can just…I don't know…explode about it."

"But—"

"I _know_, Ron…believe me, I know…."  She patted his hand comfortingly.  "Everything's falling apart, Ron.  We just need to step back until we can do something about it."

Ron's face read a mixture of expressions, and he quietly ate his lunch.

Now that they were back in the tower, however, excitement riffled through the air.

"A trip…?  Now?"

"They're mad…"

"Where'd we be going?"

"Excuse me," Hermione said politely.  "Head Girl coming through!"  The majority of the students ignored her, so Ron pushed his way through, and Hermione followed in his wake.

FOREIGN EXCHANGE TRIP 

ALL STUDENTS INTERESTED IN APPLYING FOR AN OVER-SEAS MUGGLE INTERACTION TRIP, PLEASE SEE PROFESSOR MCGONAGALL, OR YOUR HEAD BOY OR GIRL.

"Exchange trip?" Hermione said, confused.  "I don't know anything about this."

"You will in a few moments, Ms. Granger," Professor McGonagall's voice said.  Hermione turned to see the woman opening the portrait hole from the outside.  "Please, come with me."

~&~

Zack kept quiet the whole ride to school.  He didn't know why Chris and Lia were, too, but Lia was driving, and he had the feeling that if they said anything, she'd turn around and smack them all upside the head.

I wonder who she's mad at, he thought idly, pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose.  Then he laughed at himself internally.  Or it could be that we're all just tired, and no one feels like talking. 

Lia pulled up to the school and slid into a parking spot between a red convertible and a dark blue beater car.  It looked like it would fall apart at any moment and could only have been held together by some little miracle.  Kirsten was sitting in the red convertible, and it looked as though she had just pulled in, since she was putting up the roof to her car.

"Hey, Kirsten," Lia said, opening the door.  Zack thought it was strange; now that she was at school, she seemed more energetic, as though the place of learning had some sort of power over her.  _Maybe she likes school?_ he thought to himself.  He and Chris retrieved their bags from the back of the car and got out.

"Where're Jack and Pyro?"

"Jack's driving herself, and Pyro lives too close to the school for it to matter whether she drives or walks."  Lia brushed a curl that had fallen out of her ponytail behind her ear and grabbed her shoulder bag with her good arm.  "Have you seen anyone else that you know yet?"

"Nope."  Kirsten jerked her head to the slowly rising top.  "I'm attempting to take care of my car."

"And it's not working?"

"Oh, it's working," Kirsten said.  "Just really, really slowly, like the computers."

"The old ones, you mean."

"Yeah."

Zack stared up at the school.  Could it have gotten bigger since the last time he saw it?  Or was it the lighting?

"You wanna go in?" Chris asked him.

"Not particularly."

"Me neither."  He grinned at Zack, hoisted his backpack onto his back, and began to walk towards the school.  "But we sorta have to."

Zack sighed and followed.  "How many people go here?" he asked.

Chris thought for a moment.  "Between fifteen hundred and two thousand.  Why?"

_Two thousand?_ Zack thought incredulously.  "No reason."

//_The entrance hall was filled with people ranging from ages ten to seventeen.  He was one of them, heading towards his own house table with his year mates, all eight of them…_\\

"No reason whatsoever," he added, shaking his head to clear the memory from his mind.  He realized that it had been several weeks since he'd had one this clear.  He hoped that he would eventually get his memory back.  Then he wondered if it would affect his relationship with the Americans that had befriended him.

He prayed it wouldn't.

~&~

Lia was nearly skipping as she entered the school.  She was back on her turf, her playground.  Her friends were surrounding her, and she felt perfectly at home.  Immediately, they began to catch up on the missed times, starting with what happened to her arm and who Zack was.  By the time she had finished explaining, Jack and Pyro had arrived, their hair wet.

"Morning practice?" she asked, surprised.  "On the first day of school?"

"Trying to keep in shape for when we go back," Jack explained with a shrug.  She glanced down at her left hand, on which was a watch.  "Darn it…we have five minutes…"

"What do you have first?"

"Same thing you do, probably."

"Math, then…blech…" Lia rolled her eyes.  It was very amusing; she and Jack had been in the same math class for four years.  This was the third year having the class first period.

"Are you going to actually do all your homework this year?"  Lia turned to Jack and attempted to hit her in the head.

"Children," Chris warned them, separating the two.  Lia felt her heart leap as the skin of his arm brushed her hand, knocking it askew, and pulled back.  Damn her feelings for him, but she just couldn't help it!

Jack seemed to notice and rolled her eyes.  Lia felt her cheeks warm as a blush crept up her neck.

"Shut up," she told her.

Chris looked confused.  "Huh?"

Both girls grinned at him innocently.  "Nothing," they said in unison.

The bell rang.

"Dammit!" Lia cried, frustrated.  "I hate that thing…sometimes I just wish I could go bash the system with a bat so that we can just sit here and talk forever."

"Blah, blah, blah," Jack said, picking up her backpack.  "Hurry up…we want to beat the preps to the middle of the hallway so they can't make us late."

"Oh, yeah," Chris said sarcastically, also gathering up his gear.  "Because that _always_ happens."

"I don't know about you, but have you tried to get to the other side of the school from here?  It's damn near impossible with _them_ blocking the way!  You have to grab someone and navigate them through."

Lia sighed and grabbed Jack by the handle of her bag ("No touchy!!") and began to haul her towards the six hundred wing.  "Have you seen Kaori?"

Jack glanced around and then shook her head.  Almost grudgingly, Lia let go of her bag and walked beside her.  "She's probably sleeping in.  You know how she is."

"She'll miss first period."

"Goodie for her."

"You'll miss her."

"Your _face_ will miss her."

Lia raised an eyebrow.  Jack was in a bad mood.  "What happened at morning practice?"

Jack sighed.  "Throat attack."

"Aaah…I'm sorry."

They stopped as a group of preps did the same in front of them.  Lia waited for a few seconds before grabbing the shoulders of two girls and ripping them apart, ignoring their yells of outrage.

_Stupid preps…_

**[VWW: Yes, this has actually happened.  More than once.  A day.  ::Rolls eyes::]**

~&~

Zack covered his mouth to hide the huge yawn that escaped his mouth.  Chris had warned him that Health would be boring—especially since it was first period—, but he hadn't known it would be enough to put him to sleep.  The teacher, even as energetic as she was, couldn't seem to grab the attention of anyone.  One boy even sat in the back reading and she didn't notice.

He glanced at the clock.  They had ten minutes left, and then he would be off to…Zack pulled his schedule out of his pocket; Biology, also with Chris.  Due to the fact that the administration had had no idea where to put him, they'd made him take a placement test.  They concluded that he should be taking sophomore classes, although they believed his English and History skills to be those of a junior.  How they had decided this, Zack didn't know.  He hadn't even known most of the questions on the tests that he was given.

"Hey, Zack."  The Brit started at the noise and turned to his left.  Chris had turned toward him and was idly tapping two pencils against the desk as though it were a drum.

"What?"

"I'm bored."  Zack stared at him.  Chris stared back.  "What?  Can I help it if Health is the most boring class in existence?"

"It's not that," Zack told him.  "I'm bored, too…but why did you feel that you had to tell me that?"

Chris stopped playing his pencils and buried his face in his hands.  "Never mind…."

The bell rang, and both boys jumped.

"Get those papers signed by your parent or guardian and have them back to me by Tuesday, then," the teacher said over the noise of chairs scraping against the floor and zippers of bags being closed.

Zack looked at the stack of papers that had been casually thrown on his desk, as though it didn't matter.  Looking up at the thirty other students in the class, he realized that it probably didn't.

~&~

"…With liberty and justice for all."  Jack sighed heavily and sat back down in her chair, listening idly to the chattering students surrounding her.  Whatever had possessed her to take Creative Writing as a miscellaneous credit escaped her at the moment, and she was fervently praying that some of the giggling students who were in here would remove themselves from the class as soon as possible.

"Welcome back, Skyview!" the ASB president said over the PA. **[VWW: Anybody remember who got voted in?  I have no clue…oh, wait…its what's-his-face…uh…NOVA!!!]** **[Nova: Phillip.  Remember now?] [VWW: Nope.  I don't think I was there when elections took place, anyway….] **Jack busied herself with pulling out a notebook and a pencil, as the teacher was writing directions to do so on the board.  "We have some new and interesting programs available for this year."

There was the sound of the microphone switching hands.  "We have been given the opportunity to host students from foreign schools again this year," announced one of the language teachers.  Jack frowned for a moment and then recognized the owner to be her French teacher from the year before.  "If you are interested in being a host, please come by to any of the foreign language teachers, or drop by the office and pick up a form.  There are several countries in Europe from which to choose from, including but not limited to France, Spain, Italy, and the UK."

_The UK?_ Jack thought, bewildered.  _What the hell…they speak English there!_

~&~

"America?  What the hell…they speak English there!" Ron burst out, surprised.  Hermione ran a hand through her bushy hair.

"It's not just anywhere in America, Ron," she told him.

"New York?"

"No."

"Well, where, then?  There's not really very many desirable places in America…oh, wait, Florida?  California?"

"Washington," Hermione said, impatient with his rong guesses.

"WASHINGTON?  As in DC?  We're going to the capital?"

"NO, VANCOUVER, Washington."

"Canada?  What?  The notice says we'll be in America!"  Ron looked thoroughly confused.

"Vancouver, Washington," she said, rummaging for a map in her bag.  "It's right about here."  She pointed to a spot on the map.  "See?!"

"Oh."  Then, almost as an afterthought, "Why are we going there?"

"I honestly don't know," Hermione replied, staring down at her shoe.

"What's there to see in Washington?" Ron fumed.  "All they have is trees."

"And rain," Hermione told him.  "Fall is the rainy season."

**[Lia: Well, actually, so is winter.  And spring.  And some of summer.]**

"Great," Ron said, disheartened.

Hermione stared at the ground and rubbed the nub of her quill against the edge of the inkbottle, something she knew drove—used to drive—Harry insane.

Ron, catching on to her silence, sat down beside her.  "What's wrong?" he asked softly.

Hermione sighed and put her quill down.  "It's just…something's not right about the way that girl just…disappeared.  She existed, they know that.  She was real, not something just conjured by magic.  She had friends with her."

Ron furrowed his brow.  "Why didn't they try to trace through them?"

"I'm not sure," Hermione said.  "That's why there's something not right about it…as though there was something that they were trying to hide."

Ron sighed and rubbed his forehead with his hand.  Then, "When do we leave?"

"Pardon me?"  Hermione was bewildered—when had he decided that he was going?

"When do we leave?  The exchange trip."

"Oh!" Hermione exclaimed.  "Sometime later this month.  You have to send home for permission and money."

Ron paled slightly.  "Money?"

"Well, of course.  You can't go for free."  Hermione noted the crestfallen look on his face and grew curious.  "What's going on now?"

"Money!" he cried.

"Well, I'm sure that—"

Ron interrupted her by getting up and storming up to his room.  Hermione sighed again and then as though struck by a thought, grabbed a piece of parchment from the table top, dipped her quill into the inkbottle, and began to write.

~&~

"…So the teacher—I have _no_ idea how to pronounce his name, he just said to call him Mr. S, I think—told us the basics of the class, gave us this huge book to lug around, and told us to read to the end of the first chapter and do all the study questions—due tomorrow!  I'm going to have _so_ much homework tonight!"  Lia looked about ready to burst from anger.  She took a huge bite out of her sandwich and chewed on it angrily.

Kirsten and Inad giggled.  "We don't have any homework yet!"

"Biology?" Lia growled.  Zack knew that she knew that it was an Advanced Placement class—or AP, as everyone kept referring to it as.

"Yup!"

Zack and the rest of the people laughed as Lia set her jaw and pounded on the table.  "Why me?!" she asked, as though in grievance.

"Because you're Lia," Jack answered, pointing at her with a French fry.

"And your point is?"

"Exactly."

"Huh?"  Zack grinned at the confused expression on her face.

"What did I just say?"

"You said, 'Exactly.'"

"_Ex_actly."

"Jaaaaaaaack!" Lia whined.  "Stop teasing me!"

Jack looked thoughtful, as though she was considering it.  "Hmmm, I don't think so, it's funner this way."

Lia stuck out her lower lip in a pout and slumped down in her chair, mumbling, "Funner isn't a word…."

The table erupted into giggles again.

"So…" Chris said, picking up a handful of multi-colored goldfish from his plastic baggie.

"So, what?" Pyro asked, sitting down with a tray that contained a hamburger and fries.

"Sew your pants," Lia grumbled, and crossed her arms.  She uncrossed them again and took another bite from her sandwich.  Cheering up, she asked, "What do you think about this supposedly 'foreign' exchange student trip?"

"It's not going to work with the students from the UK," Jack said.  "They speak English!"

"Yes, but it's _foreign_ English," argued Chris.

Zack shook his head.  "Oh, _really_, now."

Chris gave him a sheepish grin while Lia, Jack, and Pyro laughed.  "Foreign English, Chris?  There's no such thing," Lia said.

Chris opened his mouth to argue and then shut it again.

"You look like a fish," Lia told him.

"I am a fish," he said, and proceeded to fan out his fingers and place his hands on either side of his head, all the while puffing out his cheeks and crossing his eyes.  The overall effect looked so funny (and not the least bit like any water creature Zack could remember seeing), that it sent the entire table into fits of laughter.

~&~

Lia walked into the choir room, a small flutter of anticipation in her stomach.  She had been waiting for this all summer: her chance to be in a choir again, the chance to spend an entire period just singing her heart out.

She groaned as she heard a snide voice commenting on the amount of freshmen in the class.

MarySue Davis sat in the center of the room, surrounded by a small gaggle of girls, speaking as though she were queen and they her servants.

"Oh, hello, Lianne," MarySue said as Lia walked past.

Lia resisted the urge to glare at the seventeen-year-old and instead put on a sickly sweet smile.  "Good afternoon."

"Well," MarySue started to say, "it would be, except that it's only 11:09."

Lia rolled her eyes.  "Technicalities," she said, waving her hand impatiently.  Suddenly spotting a few of her sophomore friends on the other side of the room, Lia gave MarySue another smile and hastily abandoned the closing trap for some friendlier conversation.

The bell rang, sealing the fate of anyone trying to leave, and the choir teacher walked in.  Lia didn't recognize her, but the older woman looked to be quite capable, with light brown eyes and her gray hair smoothed back into a knot in the back of her head.

"Good morning, class," she said curtly, putting her briefcase down on top of the lid of the baby grand piano and then leaning on it.  "I'm glad to see such a turnout, but I'm afraid that most of you will be leaving before the end of the month."

_Goodie,_ Lia thought sarcastically.  _A mean choir teacher—just what I've always wanted!_

"Whether you signed up for general choir by choice," she said, looking around the room and catching the eyes of multiple students, including Lia, "by pressure of your friends"—here she almost casually glanced at MarySue and her conceited bunch—"or because you need an art credit, and this seemed like the easiest class to get an A in, you _will_ be expected to participate in _all_ of the concerts, functions, and anything else I should choose to dump on you."

Swimming immediately popped into Lia's head, and she raised her hand.

"Yes, miss?" the woman asked, nodding her head towards Lia.

"What if we have after school activities that would interfere with the concerts?"

"I'll get to that.  In the meantime, I'll call roll, so the main office doesn't come hunting me down at the end of the day like it does towards a certain PE teacher."

Strained chuckles came from the older students who knew that teacher, along with annoyed sighs from MarySue's group.  The freshmen, who had no idea why they'd been stuck in general choir instead of freshman choir, looked somewhat afraid.

After she'd finished, she resumed her speech.  Lia zoned off, staring off into space, and thought about everything except for what was going on around her.  She didn't realize that she was being spoken to until the person next to her nudged her in the side.

"Ouch!  I'm sorry…yeah?"

"I asked you what activity you have after school."

"I swim," Lia said with a shrug.

The teacher looked moderately interested.  "Really.  The school has a swim team?"

"Yes," Lia replied.  "We've been undefeated for the past two years, and we're hoping to make this year our third.  But I'm also on a club team for the city.  So's MarySue," she added as an afterthought, jerking her head in the older girl's direction.

MarySue smiled sweetly at the teacher.  "I'm considering quitting, though, so I can fully devote my time to singing," she said in such a sugared voice that Lia thought she was going to gag.

To the teen's disgust, the teacher seemed to buy it.  "Aww…what a darling girl you are," she said, a slight British accent slipping into her voice.  Lia raised an eyebrow, but didn't mention it to anyone else.  Since nobody else reacted, it was best that she didn't either, she supposed.

The woman went back to her briefcase and pulled out a stack of papers from it.  She proceeded to walk to each row of chairs and hand a handful to the first person.

"These will need to be signed and returned by tomorrow," she announced.  "It's nothing big—just the shows that you will be required to attend, and the other small performances that only a select few will be singing in."

When Lia received hers, she automatically checked down the list to see if any conflicted with her swimming schedule.  To her delight, only one of them did, and it was one that wasn't required.

"Now, onto other things, like the curriculum requirements."

Lia looked up from the paper in surprise.

"Requirements?" she heard a few people mutter.  One of the boys who were sitting near Lia looked worried.  She frowned, trying to think if she knew him.  She decided that he was a sophomore, but his name escaped her at the moment.

"You will need to complete tests and the like—again, nothing earth shattering," the teacher said with a lazy wave of her hand.

"What kind of tests?" someone asked.

"Tests on your ability to read music, and your knowledge of the song that we are currently singing."

Groans filled the room, but Lia felt anticipation fill her stomach.  Baskin, a friend of hers that she had known since sixth grade, had warned her that general choir was mostly trash.  This revelation that it wouldn't be excited Lia.  Glancing at the teacher (Lia suddenly realized that she hadn't introduced herself to the class), she noticed that the woman's gaze was directed towards MarySue.  Lia grinned happily.  Although she had a small smile on her face, Lia saw that her eyes were narrowed, as though she had MarySue figured out.

_Perhaps this year will be a fun one after all!_

~&~

"Ouch!"  Zack rubbed his hand gingerly after a pile of fists had removed themselves off of it.  He hadn't thought that this card game would be so dangerous!

"Sorry, Zack," Therese told him with a slight grin.  "With 'Screw, you just gotta look out!"

"No one told me that this was going to be violent," he said, collecting his cards and shuffling them into a neat pile.  At least he was winning, even if he was being hurt during the game.

The cards began to find their way into the center of the table again as each player played his or her hand down.

"So, Zack," Therese said.

Zack felt worry nagging the back of his brain.  He could almost tell that she was about to ask about his past.  "Yes?"

_Thud-thud-thud!_  Hands flew onto the pile of cards as they all spotted the two nines, one on top of the other.  Zack winced; his hand had been at the bottom.  "Man!  You're fast!  You must have played this back in…well, wherever you're from.  Or did you practice something else?  Were you a total loser back home?"

"Be nice, Therese."  Zack looked up at the murmur.  A short Asian girl of around their age (_Or,_ Zack thought grimly,_ about how old I think I am,_) turned around in her seat to look at them.  Her almond shaped eyes were familiar somehow.  Zack furrowed his brow, trying to remember.

//_Her almond-shaped eyes stared into his own, such a clear brown that it was almost painful._

_"I don't love you," he heard his voice saying.  "I'm sorry, but I don't."_

_Those eyes filled with tears, and the older girl turned and ran in the direction of the Ra—_\\

"Zack!"

Zack nearly fell out of his chair in surprise.  "What?"

Therese was holding her binder and busily stuffing papers into it, along with a small box that had held the cards.  Zack realized that other people were packing their bags as well.

"Zack, the bell just rang.  Are you feeling okay?"

"Yeah," he told her, aware that his hands were shaking slightly.  He gripped the top of his bag to stop the movement.  "Yeah…I'm just fine."

~&~

Hermione was grinning so hard that her face hurt as she ran through the corridors towards Gryffindor tower.  The halls echoed with her sprinting footsteps, a quick _tap-tap-tap-tap!_ against a background of chattering students who had yet to return to their respective common rooms.

"Ron!" she cried and she barreled through the portrait hole.  A few other students (whom she was quite sure were not called Ron, even by nickname) turned to stare at her unique display.

Ron raised his eyebrows at her.  "What are you on about?"

Panting slightly, Hermione thrust two scrolls of parchment at him.

"You want me to check your homework?!" he said in disbelieving tones.

Hermione snorted with laughter.  "Check my homework?"  Her eyes sparkled almost maliciously.  "Open them!"

Ron stared at her for a moment with a strange expression on his face, and then went to read the contents of the parchment.  _She hasn't looked this happy in ages,_ he thought, glancing up at her as he pulled the wax seal off of the scrolls with his finger nails.  _Not since Harry…._  He shook his head, trying to get the image of the shattered glasses lying on the pavement out of his mind, and read the first few sentences of the parchment.  His jaw dropped.  "What?!  They…_paid in full_?!"

Hermione grinned broadly.  "Looks like you're coming with us after all, Ron."

He just stared at the parchment in his hands.  "And the other one…?"

"For Ginny.  She's coming, too."

Rampaging rhinos couldn't wipe the smile from his face.

~&~

Voldemort's cold, cool smile scared Wormtail slightly.  As he stared out of the window of the Riddle House, his hands clasped behind his back, the Dark Lord seemed to be contemplating something…something devious.  The sneer at the corners of his lips said as much.

"Trouble, my Lord?" he asked, his voice barely trembling.

"The war has begun," Lord Voldemort said, and laughed sharply as Wormtail frowned in confusion.  "The war has begun, yet nobody realizes the turmoil that I am about to inflict upon everyone—Muggles and all."

"My Lord?"

"It has begun, Wormtail.  And not a living being on this earth shall escape unscathed."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Thank you for all your wonderful reviews!

Next chapter: the plot thickens, new arrivals to the high school, and people begin to mysteriously disappear….  ::evil grin::  Look out for Chapter Nine: Voices In The Dark—coming soon!!


	9. Chapter Nine: Voices In The Dark

**A/N**:  I can't believe how quickly this chapter went by.  Consider yourselves very, _very_ lucky readers.  Thank you Nova on the quick (yet more thorough job than last time—thanks for the notification on the spelling errors, Ash) editing job, and thank you to a few of the characters, for not freaking when they read this.  ^.^;;****

**D/C**:  This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books, and Warner Bros., Inc.  No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.

[Insert long list of names here that's posted in chapter five, which I can't (for some reason) access right now…]are based upon actual people, but their names have been changed to protect the actual persons from a life of fame and wealth (hah!  You wish…).

"Talking inside of each other's heads" was made up by the real Kirsten and Inad.  They came up with it freshman year.  I have yet to figure out whether they actually do it or not.

The majority of the comments in this story actually came from the people that are said to have said them.  A few were added by me, but I won't tell you which ones, 'cuz that would spoil the whole story.  ~*sticks out tongue*~

The zipper shirt actually does exist: it was at one time sold by Hot Topic, a store at various malls in the Portland/Vancouver area.  I actually have no idea whether or not it exists elsewhere—y'all will have to tell me if it does.

As a quick note, the majority of this chapter was originally written as a short story for English.  It was 14 pages, double spaced, but I had to A) shorten it to single spaced for my purposes, and B) cut and paste parts that were no longer relevant to the story line.  For example, Jack, Pyro, Chris, Lia, Kirsten, and Inad were all re-introduced.  So anything that seems "simplified" probably is, and can be fixed if necessary.  Oh, the reviews from that story?  My teacher _adored_ it, and everyone who read it in my class absolutely hated the cliffy.  : )  Another job well done….

//…\\ means that it's a memory…

Thank you for all your wonderful reviews!

Chapter Nine - Voices In The Dark

_"Zippers are mesmerizing…."_

_~Kirsten Leeann Orlae, of Pyro's zipper shirt_

Zack sat down with a sigh.  The day had been rough on him.  Lia and Jack had fought twice during the car ride home, both ending up with another person yelling at them to shut it or lose it.  The teachers had succeeded in their goal of assigning as much homework as possible before a three-day weekend.  He had been having strange memories—as he was sure the lapses in the day were—of adults screaming, children running everywhere, and him in the wake of it all, facing what seemed to be an unknown opponent.

And to top the whole lot off, he had what felt like the mother of all headaches centered right around of the strange scar on his forehead.

He frowned down at the paper in front of him and tried to understand the figures that lay on it.  He had been doing so poorly in math that the teacher asked him what level he'd been in before he'd moved from England.  He had sighed, and then explained the situation of the car wreck almost a month before.

_Wow,_ Zack thought to himself.  _I have known these crazy people for over a month now.  Between school and_—he glanced down at his geometry paper—_homework, I'd forgotten about that._

He wondered vaguely if he'd recognize his former friends if he saw them, and then returned to geometry equations with a sigh.

~&~

Hermione paused in her writing, only to be jolted forward as another bout of turbulence began.  She sighed, and put the papers and heavy book away.  Even though the work they did in America wouldn't be counted, she still felt as though she had to excel.  The United States history book was heavy, but not compared to the load that she normally hauled around Hogwarts.

"Excited, Hermione?"  A Ravenclaw she didn't know peered over the top of the seat in front of her.  Another spasm of turbulence threw him from his perch.

"Pardon?"

"Are you excited?  About going back to America?"

_Am I excited?_ Hermione thought to herself.  She had bad memories of Seattle, and although Portland, Oregon, was in an entirely different state, it was still relatively close to the aforementioned city.

But was she excited…?

"I guess I am," she said finally, choosing her words slowly and carefully.  "In a way, going back is a solace; and in another way, it is a burden."

[VWW: Eurg…look at what an AP English class has done to my vocab.  Maybe I'll change this later…and maybe not….]

The boy seemed confused.  Perhaps by her use of large words, perhaps by the tone with which she spoke.  Hermione never knew, because the steward came by and told the boy to get back in his seat and buckle his belt.

Ron gently squeezed her hand (something he had been prone to doing as of late), and she smiled grimly.  Harry was still out there somewhere.  They would find him.  _She_ would find him.

Even if it killed her to do it.

**[Jack:  Jeeze, a little bit desperate there, isn't she?!]**

**[VWW: ::innocent look:: Yeah…so?]**

~&~

Lia sighed and banged her head lightly on the table in front of her.  She was going insane.

In the sixteen-year-old's eyes, insanity was a slow process, like learning how to drive.  At first, you don't get to leave the parking lot, but once you've managed the basics, you get to drive on the streets, and learn that not everything is as difficult as it seems.

This was what math was doing to her.  Well, math, and the fact that the teacher was going to put her to sleep if she didn't do something about it.

"Jack," she whispered.  "Jack!"

"What?"

"Pinch me."

"Pinch you?"

"Are you deaf?  I said pinch me!"

Giving her a strange look, Jack complied.

"YEOUCH!"

The classroom went dead quiet, and Lia rubbed her arm.  "I didn't say hard!"

"Girls, is there something wrong?"

Jack was utterly bewildered by this point.  "I'm _really_ confused," she said, shaking her head.

Lia rubbed her arm more vigorously.  "Nothing wrong; she just pinched me, is all."

"Jill?"—Jack sighed and Lia had to stifle a giggle—"Are we in second grade?"

"No, you misunderstand," Lia told her.  "I _asked_ her to pinch me."

Now the teacher looked confused.  "Never mind, ladies.  Now, to get to the absolute value function, press the math button…."

Lia sighed again.  It seemed insanity would come sooner than she thought it would.  **[Nova: You mean it's not already here?] [Lia: Hey!  I resemble that comment!] [Nova: You mean resent?] [Lia: Whatever….]**"D'you know when those exchange peoples are coming?" she whispered.

Jack shrugged.  "Probably any day now.  It's not like we'll notice the difference.  Adding twenty students to a school of over eighteen hundred is like placing 20 needles in a haystack of  eighteen hundred hay…straws."

**[VWW: Yes.  1800.  That's the count for this year.  It's pathetically huge.]**

"Good point.  But you'd recognize the accent, if you heard it!  It's not like these people are moving in from a different state, where their accent is at least somewhat similar to ours."

"Um, Lia?  Their accent _is_ somewhat similar to ours."

"Whatever."

"Girls, pay attention!"

Lia grimaced, and she heard Jack's chair squeak as she jumped in surprise.  The teacher loomed from the front of the room, looking very menacing indeed.

"Uh oh…."

~&~

The twenty Hogwarts students filed into the lobby, lugging their bags in an exhausted manner behind them.  Hermione felt that Ginny looked as though she was about to fall asleep standing up, while Ron was barely stumbling across the cushy carpet as it was.  Even Draco Malfoy, who had somehow been convinced to come along, was not as immaculate as he normally was.  Professor Crowley, the Muggle Studies teacher who had volunteered to bring them along, somehow kept alert, while Professor White, the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, looked as tired as the rest of them.

"Alright," Professor White said.  She wiped a lock of her auburn hair from her eyes and tucked it back behind her ear.  "Girls, follow me.  Boys, follow Professor Crowley."

Malfoy jeered slightly, but everyone did as they were told, Hermione noticed.  It seemed they were all too tired to object.

"We start classes tomorrow morning," Professor White explained to them as they walked down the hall, "So we're going to let you do what you please for the rest of the day.  If you can, try not to sleep until a more reasonable hour.  It'll be better for you, since you'll have to wake up early."

A few tired murmurs met Hermione's ears.

 Blaise Zambini raised her hand.  "Are we allowed to leave the hotel?"

"Good question, Zambini.  As long as you take a partner with you, or go in a group of less than five people, you may leave the hotel.  You also have to let one of the chaperones know."

"Can we go visit the school now, if we want?"

Professor White looked thoughtful for a moment.  "You know, that's not such a bad idea.  I know Professor Crowley isn't letting his boys off the premises (and with good reason!), but I'm willing to take you—as long as you don't mind walking."

Another bunch of tired murmurs met Hermione's ears, but this time they seemed slightly more interested in learning where they would be attending school for the next four months.

"All of you, go shower up and get ready in Muggle clothes."  The light seemed to have come back into the young professor's eyes.  "Let's go sightseeing."

~&~

Jack sat down at her desk, a rueful sigh escaping her lips.  For some reason, the school day had dragged by, as though someone had rigged time to move five times slower than normal.  She slipped her bag off her shoulder and let it drop to the floor.  She was pretty sure the resounding _thud_ could be heard from the floor below.

"Tough day?"

She lifted her head off her arms and looked through the bit of blue dyed tips that were her bangs at a maliciously grinning Lia.

"What do you want?"

"Nothing."

"What are you even doing in her?  I thought you had AP English."

"I do.  Well, I will.  I haven't switched in yet."

Jack buried her face in her arms again.  Another four days with Lia…they already had two classes together, and now another.

_Crap._

The class started, and Jack listened dully to the teacher's rambling speech.  Bored, the teen pulled a blank sheet of paper from her bag and began to doodle.  Abstract art began to form, flowing straight from her hand into her pencil faster than she could think.  Before she knew what was going on, she had filled the page with a scene right out of Picasso's paintings.

"Ms. Gilligan!"

Jack's head shot up in the air, her orange streaked hair flying everywhere.  "Yes?"

"The answer, Jill."  Jack sighed; for some reason, certain teachers could never get her name right.  It was usually math teachers, though.

"I'm sorry, I wasn't paying attention.  Could you repeat the question?"

Snickers laced the classroom.  Jack resisted the urge to roll her eyes.

The teacher, however, seemed to have no such restrictions about rolling eyes, but repeated the question anyway.  "In the second chapter, what is the main character's problem once she reaches the road?"

_What?  What problem?_

"Uh…" Jack said, tugging at a lock of her hair.  "Well…."

"Page twenty-two!" Lia hissed, nudging her.

Jack flipped her book open, and then realized that Lia had told her the wrong page number.  However, it didn't matter, because she remembered.  "Oh!  She sees another car approaching, and due to her criminal state, she needs to jump back into the ditch."

"Good!  I'm glad to see _someone_ did the reading from last night."

_Actually, I read this book last year,_ Jack thought to herself grimly.  _It doesn't take a rocket scientist to remember that._

Half an hour later, the final bell of the day rang, and cheers erupted from the students.  They had made it through the week.

"Finish up anything you have left as homework," the teacher droned monotonously.  "I'll see you all on Monday."

Lia bounced over.  "You going to practice today?" she asked, referring to the swim practice that evening.

"Supposedly," Jack told her dryly.  "Is there ever a day when I _don't_ go?"

"Well, when you're sick, when you've got too much homework, when you and Daniel decide to take too many detours—"

"Lia," Jack said with a slight laugh.  "We do not take _detours_."

"Then what _do_ you call them?"

"Detours," supplied a deeper voice than what either teen expected.  Jack turned and, to her delight, saw Daniel quickly approaching from behind them.  She felt a grin form on her face and she wrapped her arms around the older boy when he got close enough.

"Bad day?"

"Am I that readable?"

"Hey-lo, chillens," Pyro said, coming up from behind as well, and draping her arms around their shoulders.  Jack almost laughed at the reprieve.

"Howdy," Lia answered back, falling into step with them as they started off towards the 900 wing stairs.

"Having a good day, are we?"

"Yup!" Lia replied.

Jack snorted.

"No, then?" Pyro commented, raising her eyebrows.

Jack smiled sardonically in reply.

"What's up?" Daniel asked her.

She sighed and explained everything that had gone wrong that day, starting with missing morning practice because she slept in accidentally, and ending with her near brush with detention.

**[Nova: Well, what's wrong with sleeping in?]**

**[Jack: I missed practice!  ::Wails::]**

**[Nova: Yeah, so?  That can be regarded as a GOOD thing for people who value sleep.]**

"Doesn't sound that bad," Lia said with a shrug.

"That's because it didn't happen to you!"

"Uh, one part did."

"What?  Oh, the detention.  But teachers like you, Lia.  She wasn't about to give _you_ detention."

"Can I help it if I'm so cute and innocent?"

"Innocent, my ass," Jack murmured under her breath.

**[Inad: Bad word!  Bad word!!  ::swats VWW over the head::]**

**[VWW: Yeouch!  That's what she says!  AAAAH!!!  No!!!  ::hides::]**

"I heard that."

Jack sighed again and resisted the urge to run to the nearest wall and start hitting her head against it._  Wait a second,_ she thought.  _What walls?!_  It was a huge joke among the students at her high school that their school was rich enough to have afforded new computers the previous February, but too poor to afford walls, doors, and working windows.  _Heh…maybe I should go search for one of those portable wall things, but it would probably roll away and leave me feeling all confused and more than a little gypped._

"_Jack_!  Jeeze, you _are_ inattentive today…."

Jack blinked.  "What?"

Kirsten and Inad, two more of her best friends, were standing a few feet in front of her, both of them with their hands planted on their hips.  "Well?" Kirsten asked.

"Well what?"

"Would you?" Inad chimed in.

"Would I what?  Would you two quit being cryptic?!"

"No," they answered in unison.

Frustrated, Jack turned to face Pyro, Lia, and Daniel, and was surprised to see that all three of them had expressions of fear splayed on their faces and were shaking their heads violently.  The teen suddenly had a lurking suspicion of what the crazy girls had asked for.  "No," she said bluntly.

"No what?" Kirsten asked, looking confused.

"No," she repeated, this time with a little laugh.

"No?"  Inad looked profoundly disappointed.

"No, I will _not_ give you money to buy Skittles with."

Three enormous sighs of relief told Jack that she had hit the nail on the head.  She tried not to laugh.

"Okay, then," Kirsten said, her smile returning full force, "would you give us a ride home?  We don't want to take the bus, and Inad couldn't get her car today, and mine's in the shop."

"Why's yours in the shop?" Lia asked over Jack's loud groan.

"I got hit yesterday at lunch while waiting at the light.  Someone couldn't wait to get out of the parking lot."

Jack groaned loudly again.  It was bad enough that they had wanted her to buy them Skittles…now they wanted her to drive them?!

"I'll do it," Lia offered.

"That's okay," Jack said wearily.  "I should be back in time for practice…if not, don't wait for me."

Jack watched as Lia went to her locker and, after struggling with the key and lock for a moment, opened it.  Two jackets, a math book, and a chemistry book promptly spilled out and hit the floor.  Jack snorted with laughter.

The teens clustered around Lia while she distributed belongings, including (but not limited to) three math books, a sweatshirt, two water bottles, and a small bottle of body spray.

"Inad, I the way this smells!!  It's so good!" Kirsten said.

"Thanks!"

The two giggled for a few moments, and then followed Jack out to her car.

~&~

"I don't know whether to feel bad for her or laugh and laugh and laugh," Lia told Pyro, dropping her bag onto the floor near an armchair and then sinking into said armchair.

Pyro grinned in reply and went to the fridge.

"D'you think we should be worried?"

"Nah.  Jack can take care of herself, and they didn't seem_ that_ hyper."

Lia composed a serious look on her face and stood up from the chair.  "Don't forget: looks can be deceiving."

Pyro waved a negligent hand towards her friend.  "She'll be fine.  The worst that could happen is that they begin a giggle-spree, and that hasn't happened for two days."

"They're due for another one, then."

"Not necessarily."  Pyro withdrew her head from the fridge, a large Rubbermaid juice container in her left hand.  "They've gone for two weeks before."

"Once," Lia pointed out, patting Pyro's cat on the head before rudely shoving her off of the couch.  Lia wasn't very fond of cats, possibly because they made her sneeze more often than not.

"Exactly.  It could happen again!"

Lia laughed.  "And pigs can fly."

"Let's not get into that again."  Pyro grabbed a cup from the cupboard and began to pour herself some lemonade.

"Good idea."  Lia sneezed loudly and absently grabbed a tissue from the nearby tissue box near by.  "Do you have Angel from this week?  I missed the last half hour, and I'm _dying_ to know what happened…"

~&~

Jack turned up the radio to try to drown out the incessant giggling of Inad and Kirsten.  _Why me?_ she wondered sadly.  _Why did I have to agree to take them home?_  She glanced into the rearview mirror and was slightly startled to see that the two blonds were staring up at her, evil grins on their faces.

_Why me?_ Jack wondered once more.  She stopped at a traffic light and glanced out the driver's side window.  They were pretty close to Kirsten's house now.

A black sedan pulled up beside them and rolled down the window.  The man in the passenger seat motioned for her to do the same.

Jack frowned.  There was something about the man that didn't rub her the right way.  She shrugged internally.  Maybe it was the fact that his eyes were too close together.

She rolled down the window.  "Yeah?"

"Can you tell me how to get to Highway 99 from here?"

Jack relaxed slightly and gave him directions.

"Thank you, miss.  Have a good day!"

Jack smiled warmly, although inside she was still bothered.  There was something not right about that man.

The light turned, and Jack began to drive forward again.  The black sedan followed them.  _That's strange,_ Jack thought.  _I gave him directions starting from here if he turned around…maybe he misunderstood…?_

"Jack?"  Jack looked into the rearview mirror again to see that Inad had turned fully around in her seat and was watching the sedan, while Kirsten looked up at her kind of worriedly.  She hadn't even realized that the teens had stopped giggling.  "What's up with that guy?"

"I don't know," she answered.

Finally, about five minutes later, he sped ahead of them and went around a corner.  Jack relaxed and turned the music up again.

_See?_ she scolded herself.  _There was nothing to be worried about!_

Something slammed into the side of the car, and Jack's head collided with the steering wheel.  She barely had time to register Inad and Kirsten's screams of fear before the world went black.

~&~

A dull ache throbbed in her head.  _My head has no business hurting,_ Jack thought dimly.  The smell of dust was thick around her.  She tried to open her eyes, but what felt like a hand was pressed tightly over them.  A wave of terror encompassed her as the memories of what had happened spilled across her mind.

Jack felt like screaming, but her lips wouldn't open, so nothing more than a few muffled sobs emanating into the room. "Do us all a favor," an annoyed voice growled, "and shut up!"  Jack moaned in fear, but a vicious kick to her ribs quickly quieted her.

"What are we going to do about her now that the other two are dead?" a heavily accented voice asked.  Jack tried to roll over.  When she found that the only parts of her body that she could move were her head and neck, panic welled in her stomach, threatening to take over her mind entirely.  What had these strange men done to prevent her from moving?  And where were Inad and Kirsten?  Surely they weren't the two dead people her kidnappers were talking about…right?

"Even more important," another voice, this one in a much clearer British accent, said, "what are we going to do with their bodies?"

Jack felt like curling into a ball and rocking back and forth.

"Dump them somewhere."

"And the girl?" the man that had kicked her asked, nudging her hip with his foot.

The soft rustling of a shirt moving alerted Jack that someone had shrugged.  "The boss said that he wanted one of their group alive.  We have one; leave her alone…for now."

_One of their group?  Which group?  What do they want with me?!_

Two muffled thumps—one on either side of Jack—startled the teen so badly that she would have jumped, had she been able to.  A delicate scent wafted into her nose.

"Don't bring them in here!" the heavily accented voice cried.

"Are you mad?!" the Brit exclaimed at the same time.  "What if someone sees you?"

Jack strained to figure out where she had smelled the scent before.

"He wants all three of them," a new voice said.  Jack thought it sounded familiar.

"Put them all in the back closet," the leader ordered.  "Make sure they're out of sight."

With a surge of fresh pain, all feeling returned to her limbs, and she was dragged to her feet.

"Start walking," the new man said as two iron hands wrapped around her upper arms.  Jack attempted to struggle against him, but found that her feet seemed to have mutinied and allied with her captors.  The creaking of a door opening caught her ears before she was shoved into the small space.  She flailed her arms, trying to keep her balance, and hit the wall with a sickening thud.

Dazed, she listened as two more people were shoved into the small space, and heard the door shut again.  A lock clicked into place.

The delicate scent met her nose once more.  Jack strained to figure out what it was, but the body-binding sensation that had been on her earlier was once more in place.  She stifled back the urge to cry, and instead lay there, listening to the voices in the dark.

~&~

A cell phone went off in the midst of the group of teens chattering noisily.

"Who's got Pink Panther?"

Lia grinned and raised her hand before diving into her bag and pulling out a well-loved cell.  "Alo?"

"Lia?"

"Well, who else would this be, Daniel?  This is _my_ phone, after all."

"The last time I called, I got your brother."

Lia grinned sheepishly.  "Oh.  Why are you calling?"  She frowned.  "Why aren't you here?"

"Jack's mother called; she never came home.  I'm driving over there to prove that she's not hiding out in my car again."

"_Hello_!  She took the evil twins home!  Inad lives way out in the boonies!"

"Well, do me a favor and call Kirsten…I don't have her number."

"Daniel, relax!  She'll be fine…she probably stopped somewhere with Inad after dropping Kirsten off to get a bite to eat…or something."  Lia felt unnerved.  She couldn't remember the last time she had heard Daniel sound this worried.  She couldn't remember _ever_ hearing him sound worried.

"I'll call back in twenty minutes."

"I'll be in the pool in twenty minutes.  Look, if she doesn't show up to practice, I'll give you a call, okay?"

A few people were giving her weird looks.

"Bye."

"See ya."  She hung up and put the phone back in her bag.

"Lia?  Care to share?" Pyro asked.

"Daniel's being paranoid."

"Daniel normally has a reason to be paranoid," she pointed out.

"Jack never came home."  Lia shrugged.  "I told you, he's being paranoid!"

"Yeah…."  Pyro grinned and glanced up at the clock.

"I'm going to head on down," Lia said, looking up as well.  "See y'all in a few."

~&~

_Stupid headache,_ Jack though angrily.  The voices had abated long ago, and the slamming of a door a few minutes earlier announced their departure.

Suddenly, Jack felt the weight of the hand on her eyes disappear, and she somehow knew she could move her body and open her mouth.  She sat up slowly, feeling her bones and muscles ache and pull as she did so.

Then she remembered.

//_"Inad, I the way this smells!!  It's so good!" Kirsten said._

_"Thanks!"_\\

Jack choked back another sob as she gazed at the prone bodies of Kirsten and Inad.  She wrapped her arms around herself helplessly.

She sat there, staring at them, until the tears ran freely down her face, and she prayed that someone would find her before it was too late.

Before she ended up like her friends.

_Stupid headache!_ Jack though again, getting up and running her fingers along the door, searching for anything that could allow her exit from her prison.  Anything that could get her away from the bodies.

She shook her head violently and fervently continued.  The men had left, so she figured she might as well try to get out.  _What do they want with us?_ she thought for the hundredth time that day.  She sat back on her heels and contemplated the situation at hand.  _All I know is that they don't care that they've killed someone—killed _two_ someones…_  Jack smiled bitterly.  _You know what…if there's no one here…_

The now crying teen pulled her leg back and kicked the door as hard as she could.  An almighty _crack!_ sounded from the door, but other than that, there was no effect.  Jack kicked it again, ignoring the pain in her foot.  A splintering sound met her ears.  She kicked once more, and was rewarded when her foot hit the wood and then continued through to freedom.

Sort of.

Now she was half-stuck in a closet with her foot sticking out the door.  Jack nearly laughed at the irony of it all.

_Today just _isn't_ my day._

~&~

Daniel couldn't have cared less if the metal door put permanent welts on his hands from all the pounding he was doing.  Someone would let him in—eventually.  Finally, he heard a click as someone twisted the handle and he stepped back to see who it was.  A very annoyed—and wet—Lia stood at the door.

"Oh, it's you," she said.

"Yeah."

Lia's annoyed looked changed to worry.  "What's up?"

"Nothing."

Lia raised an eyebrow.  "That was ambiguous," she commented.

"Not really."

"Well, something's wrong.  You don't—"

"Kirsten never got home."  He hesitated, not wanting to tell her the rest.

Lia picked up on the pause.  "And…"

"I found her car, smashed on the driver's side, on the road three miles from Kirsten's house.  Empty."

Lia went pale.  "Give me ten minutes—no, five.  I'll grab Pyro."

~&~

Jack gritted her teeth and pulled her leg free from the door, pleased that she had at least somewhat secured her way out.  She gingerly put her arm through the hole and felt around for the doorknob.  There wasn't one.  Panicking, Jack frantically felt around until her hand hit something cold and definitely metal.  She sighed in relief and started to laugh quietly.  She twisted the knob and let herself out.  The sun's dying light filled the room with such brilliance that it hurt Jack's eyes.  She covered her face with her arm and leaned against the doorframe, waiting for her eyes to adjust.

Inad's perfume wafted up her nose again, and Jack turned to look at their bodies once more.  Strangely, they looked unhurt, except for what would have been a nasty bruise on the left side of Inad's head, and a gash on Kirsten's leg.

_What should I do with them?_ Jack wondered, trying not to cry and, mostly, not to pass out.  Finally, grief overwhelmed her, and she fell to her knees in tears and sobbed over her dead friends.

~&~

"How much longer?" Lia asked, fingering a still damp curl.

"Not much," Daniel said hollowly.  "Maybe two minutes to where the car is."

"Did you tell Jack's mother?" Pyro wanted to know.

Lia turned to look at Daniel.  He hesitated.  "No."

"No?!" Lia burst out.  "Why not?  She's her _mother_, for Pete's sake!"

"Lia, calm down."

Lia rounded on her friend, her eyes very green.  "Calm down?"

"Yes, Lia.  We can all hear you just fine, as we're all no more than a few feet away from each other."

Lia harrumphed and leaned back into her seat, looking decidedly grumpy.

"There it is," Daniel said finally, and pulled over.  The sun had just started to drop below the trees, so Pyro grabbed a flashlight from the back seat and the three of them stepped out of the car.

The little Honda looked pitiful.  Both doors were swung wide—the driver's side looked as though it had been pried off—and a chunk of blond hair was stuck in the back window.  Lia examined it, very careful not to touch anything.

"It's Kirsten's," she said.

"How can you tell?" Daniel asked.

"There's enough of it that has the wave that hers does, and it's so blond!"

"Lia, how much of that forensics stuff do you remember from Biology last year?" Pyro's voice asked from down the road a little ways.

"Enough," Lia admitted.

"And how good are you with measurements?"

"In meters or yards?"

"Either."

"Not good.  Why?"

Pyro flashed the light on the pavement in response.  Parallel skid marks began from halfway down the road in an arc from where a car should drive and ended where the car had stopped.

"I can tell you in good faith that they were going the speed limit," Lia admitted, "and that they were definitely hit."

"Good job, Sherlock," Daniel said sarcastically.  "Care to state any more of the obvious?"

"And I can also tell you that it was done purposely."

Pyro looked startled.  "How?"

"There's no marks coming from where the other car would have run into them.  If I'm remembering everything right, that is."

"Who would want to kill them?"

"No idea."

A loud crack made the three of them jump, and Pyro quickly turned off the flashlight.  A limping figure emerged from the trees onto the road.

Without stopping to think, Lia grabbed the flashlight from Pyro and turned it on, bellowing, "Police!  Freeze!"

The person obeyed.

"What are you doing?" Daniel hissed in her ear.

"Better to play it safe than sorry!"

She began to walk forward slowly.  "Put your hands up where I can see them!"  Again, the person obeyed.

"You've got to help me!" the voice came back to them.  Lia nearly dropped the flashlight.

"Jack!"  The three teens ran towards the girl and smothered her in a hug.  Lia made a fuss over the bruise that was forming on her forehead, while Daniel devoted his time to wrapping her in his leather coat.

"Are you okay?" Pyro finally got out, after the babbling of Lia and Daniel had somewhat died away.

Jack began to shiver, and it wasn't until a sob escaped her lips that they realized she was crying.

"Jack?" Daniel said.

"Where are Kirsten and Inad?" Lia asked slowly.

Jack sobbed harder.

~&~

Jack took a sip of the coffee that had been firmly placed in her hands and sighed.  _What a day,_ she thought.  _There are so many things I could have done differently._

A pair of hands grabbed her shoulders, and Jack jumped away.  She turned and saw the hurt look on Daniel's face.

"Oh, D, I'm sorry," she said softly.  "I'm just…" she trailed off and stared into her mug.

"I understand."

Jack took another sip and looked at him again.  "I was just thinking…that's all."

Kirsten and Inad's giggling sounded in her mind.  She closed her eyes, but the tears dripped out anyway.  Daniel's arms enveloped her in a hug.  "I've…I…"

"Shh," Daniel murmured.  "It's okay.  I know."

"They'll _never_ catch those men unless they confess to it," Jack said finally.  "I never saw them."

"I know."

Something didn't ring right about the tone in his voice.  Jack turned again to look at him.

"How do you know?"

He smiled at her, but it was a cold smile.  "Do you really want to know?" he asked her, leaning close.  Jack felt her blood run cold.

"Oh, my God," she whispered.  The familiar voice from the house…it was Daniel!  But how…?

A gunshot echoed off the walls in the room, and a body slumped down to the floor.

**[VWW: Mwahaha…let the fun begin….]**


	10. Chapter Ten: Hearing Scandalous Ghost Af...

**A/N**: Sorry it took so long…I know it shouldn't have, as I'd promised you chapter 10 by October 27th (eep….)  I had a few unscheduled problems.  First off, Nova didn't realize that I'd written two chapters in one go (something very usual for me—I normally only finish one at a time. ^__^) So that set me back a bit.  Next issue: my computer somehow got a virus that totally incapacitated me so that I wasn't able to get on the internet.  Kinda dumb, eh?  Yah, so I just recently got that fixed, and Nova finally (yes, finally…as in today, 12/2/03) finished editing.  She just kinda forgot she had it, and then finished editing.  Then I gave it back to Ash for more editing (I have two betas now—isn't that nice?!), and got it back yesterday…so, hopefully chapter 11 will go faster.  Oh, yeah: I combined 10 and 11 (the old 11) together, because they were both slightly short….Heh.  So, enjoy!  No flames, please.

Oh, Ash being a new beta means, more funny comments!!  Mwahaha….

**D/C**:  This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books, and Warner Bros., Inc.  No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.

[See new list of characters, now posted and updated in chapter 5]are based upon actual people, but their names have been changed to protect the actual persons from a life of fame and wealth (hah!  You wish…).

"Talking inside of each other's heads" was made up by the real Kirsten and Inad.  They came up with it freshman year.  I have yet to figure out whether they actually do it or not.

The majority of the comments in this story actually came from the people that are said to have said them.  A few were added by me, but I won't tell you which ones, 'cuz that would spoil the whole story.  ~*sticks out tongue*~

//…\\ means that it's a memory…

Chapter Ten – Hearing A Scandalous Ghost Affair*

_"It's all sunny and happy outside!"_

_~Jessakah "Jack" Gilligan_

Lia pulled her coat tighter around her body as tears dripped down her face.  This shouldn't have happened—it _couldn't_ have happened.  Inad and Kirsten would walk down the empty street any moment, giggling and holding up the bag of Skittles that they had just bought.

The wind blew in her face, causing her curls to fly back away from it so that her eyes could be seen more clearly.  She was alone there, now, as Pyro had gone home and the police were still debriefing Jack.  Jack was all right, thankfully…too bad Kirsten and Inad….

Lia shivered hard under her letterman's jacket as more tears fell from her eyes.  They were so young—_too_ young—and now they were gone….

And it was her fault, too.

Lia began to sing quietly, a slight quaver in her voice.  She continued to cry until it took over voice entirely and she sat down on the frigid pavement and wrapped her arms around herself, still shaking, although this time from both cold and sadness.

~&~

Zack looked up at the sound of giggling.  "Did you hear that?" he asked Chris.

Chris looked up from his drumming.  "Huh?"

"That laughing."

"What laughing?  Are you hearing things again?"

Zack looked down at his geometry book.  "I guess so."

"Maybe it's the math," Chris suggested.

"Maybe."

Zack continued to work on his homework.  Five minutes later, he heard the giggles again, and he knew he wasn't imagining things.

"I just heard it again!"

"What?"

"That laughing!"  Chris gave him a look of disbelief.  "How can you not hear it?!"

"Zack, I didn't hear any laughing.  Are you sure it's not coming from Matt's room?"

The Brit sighed.  "No, it was in here.  I know I heard it."

"Zack, it's just you and me in here.  Perhaps they should have checked your head for brain damage rather than lack of memory."

Zack smirked, something he'd picked up from Jack as a way of expressing sarcasm.  "Perhaps."

The phone rang suddenly, and almost absently Chris reached over and picked it up out of the cradle.

"Haa-lo?"

Zack watched him pause, the color draining from Chris's face.  "A-are you sure?"  He paused again, and then buried his face in one hand.  "Oh, my God.  I'll be right there."

"What is it?" Zack asked.

"It's about Jack...  I'm off to the police station.  Stay here and…I'll call later…if…."  He trailed off, and ran to go pick up his coat.

  ~&~

Jack felt like she was floating.  The pounding in her head was excruciating, causing a myriad of colors to flash in front of her eyes.  The shouts all around her only made the pain worse, and for the second time that day she wanted nothing more than to curl up in a ball and rock back and forth.

She felt someone lifting her body from the ground and placing her on a flat, slightly cushy object.  Jack opened her eyes for a moment, trying to see through the flashes of light.  Daniel's body was lying on the ground, a pool of blood expanding out from beneath him.

Jack accepted the darkness that rapidly claimed her.

~&~

Lia had felt rather than heard the gunshot, and now that she was inside she wished more than anything she hadn't.

"No…not Jack too," she whispered.  She'd had enough.  She'd _cried_ enough.

Running to the stretcher on which her motionless friend was lying, Lia let out a yell of rage and leapt over one of the benches with such enthusiasm that her foot caught on it, causing her to pitch forward and hit the ground with a sickening smack.

"Lia…are you okay?"

Lia groaned dizzily and looked up into the light Chris's light blue eyes.  They looked red and slightly puffy, as though he too had been crying.  Lia winced inwardly, hoping feverishly that she didn't look the same.

"Is she—"

"I don't know."  Chris tugged Lia ungracefully to her feet and they sat down on the bench that she'd managed to not tip over.

Jack looked so pale, her skin almost blue in the florescent light of the police station.  Lia closed her eyes in an attempt to erase the image of her laying there, as though dead, her hair pillowed around her head, the cut from God-only-knew what shining, a droplet of blood threatening to drip down her face and mar her falsely peaceful expression.  The smells of the police station invaded her senses instead, the scent of burnt coffee flooding her nose.  Lia wrinkled the appendage in distaste and opened her eyes again to see Chris giving her a strange look.  She shook her head in answer, and tried not to watch as Jack was wheeled through the doors of the police station and loaded into an ambulance.

~&~

Daniel felt trapped, panicked.  He believed that he had only worsened the whole situation by cussing fluently at his captors in Welsh.  It was a big mistake, it seemed, as one of the men was from England and understood enough Welsh to understand the gist of what Daniel was calling his mother.

"Let me get this straight," the leader said.  Daniel was sure he was the leader because of the disgusting stench that was emanating from his clothes.  Also, he was the ugliest out of the group of men, and the ugliest one was always the leader in all the old movies.  "You killed two of them, lost the third, and nearly let this one ruin the plan?"

"No, not exact—"

The leader kneed the man who spoke in the stomach.  He coughed, leaned over, and dry-retched a few times, which made Daniel want to do the same.  Then again, Daniel also wanted to hurt the guy who had grinned so wretchedly at him when they told him what they were planning to do with Jack while she was in the supposed safety of the police.

"Any comment, boy?"

Daniel glared at him, his blue eyes flashing dangerously.

"Well, we have a feisty one here," said another one of the men.  Daniel resisted the urge to roll his eyes.  "What can we do with him?"

"Nothing," said the leader, implacable.  "I thought that I made myself _quite_ clear when I said that I needed the girl."

"What do you need her for, anyway?"

The leader clucked his tongue at the little man who asked the question.  "Not when we have a visitor…"

The teen glared.

"Perhaps we need to teach him a lesson…"  The leader grinned evilly.  Daniel swallowed.  He realized that perhaps glaring wasn't the best way to improve his situation, after all….

~&~

Lia walked over to her car and inserted the key in the door.  The lock clicked, and she pulled it open.

"Are you sure you should be driving yourself home?" Chris asked her.

Lia turned to look at him.  A tear dripped down her cheek, which she absently brushed away.  "I'm fine."

"You're obviously not fine.  I'm not going to let you get in a wreck.  Let my mom drive you home."

"What about my car?!"

"Call one of your parents…I'm sure they'll come and pick it up."

"And who'll drive the car that _they_ bring?"

Chris leaned against Lia's car and thought for a moment.  "Both of them come, one drives your car, the other drives the initial car."

"No, Chris…"  Lia trailed off and started to get in her car again.  "I need to think, anyway."

"It's after dark."

"I know.  I've been driving for a few months, I'll be okay."

Chris looked worried still.

"I'm touched by your concern, but…I just…" Lia ran a hair through her curls, catching one or two knots with her fingers and ripping them out.  "You don't understand…"

"You'll get in another car wreck."

"I don't have four other people coming with me in my brother's Saab going to Seattle."  She squeezed her eyes shut, remembering the trip. 

"Lia…"

"Chris, I'm leaving now.  If I run over your foot, I'm not paying for the hospital fee, for the sole reason that I warned you."  She stepped into the car and went through the motions of starting it.

"Lia—"

"Chris, do you _like_ your feet the way they are, or do they need to be a little flatter?!"

He got the point—quickly.

Lia backed the car with painstaking care, but it still meandered slightly along the parking spot.  Lia stepped on the brake, closed her eyes in annoyance, and pulled into the spot again.  Chris was right; she was in no shape to drive tonight.

[Ash: No wonder you crashed the car back in August!]

[Lia: not my fault—distractions in the car!!  This is why we have the six month law, in real life!!]

[Ash: Suuuure….]

They walked over to where his mother was sitting in her car, the thick clouds that had been threatening to spill open on them finally releasing their downpour, like tears from heaven.

Perhaps they were.

~&~

Jack was unsure about her situation at that moment.  The siren's wail echoed through the night like a seagull in the quiet dawn.  Something was stuck in her arm—she was sure of it, because every time the ambulance turned, a plastic tube gently brushed the inside of her elbow.

_This is really tedious,_ she thought.  She was feeling better; she didn't see why they still had to take her to the hospital.  They _could_ just drive her home…right?

_~Well, yes, but what's the fun in that?!~_

Jack, if she had been standing, would have fallen down.

_What the hell?!_

_~Bad word!~_

Jack attempted to sit up.  _You're dead!  You're _both_ dead!_

_~Not really, no.~_

_~Kirsten, you're confusing her.~_

_~So what else is new?!~_

"No, please, no," Jack muttered.

A cool hand touched her forehead.  "I think she's delirious, although she has no reason to be.  She didn't experience that much head trauma."

The teen ignored the nurse and the noise that began to rise up from the front as someone called in the report.

_I'm not hearing the voices of my two dead friends,_ Jack thought, nearly paranoid.  _No way._

_~You're not?~_ Kirsten sounded crestfallen.  _~Are you sure?  I'm pretty sure that we're here, in your head.~_

_No!!  I'm not hearing ghosts of my two _dead_ friends!_

_~You're not hearing ghosts!~_ Inad said indignantly.  _~And we're not dead!~_

_Yes, you are.  I saw you!  If you're not breathing, and your hearts aren't beating, you're not living!_

_~Quit being stupid, Jessakah,~_ Kirsten scolded her.

_I'm not being stupid!!_

_~Yes, you are.~_

_Don't argue with me!  What am I saying—you can't argue with me!  You're _dead_!_

_~No,~_ Inad corrected her.  _~Actually, we're trapped.~_

Two insane giggles echoed uncomfortably inside Jack's head.

~&~

Lia wasn't talking.  That scared Chris more than anything.  Lia had been an avid talker since he met her, and the only bout of silence he had witnessed was when she had been sleeping, although she didn't know.  It had happened a long time ago, when she had fallen asleep in the back of Jack's mother's van on the way to a swim meet that neither of the teens could compete in.

He heard her sigh and he glanced at her: her chin was cupped in her hand, her gaze focused on the pouring rain beyond the window.

"Lia?"

She didn't answer, except to shiver with the cold of the car.

Chris decided to leave her alone with her thoughts and turned towards his window, watching the rain as well.

"I can't believe they're gone," she said in a choked and trembling voice.

Chris turned back, and saw that she was looking at him, her eyes bright, a tear tracing a trail down her cheek.  "What?"

Lia shut her eyes tightly and shuddered, her hair slipping from where she had tucked it behind her ears and falling in front of her face.  She sniffed loudly, and then wiped her face, as though ashamed of her tears.  "Th-they're gone.  Kirsten and Inad."

Chris felt confused.  _Gone?  As in…_

"And now Daniel, and Jack so damn close to it."

_Dead?_

~&~

_No,_ Jack thought wildly.

_~Yup!  Please, get us out!~_

_~Although, we're not really in much of a hurry,~ _Inad added.  _~I mean, it's not so bad here…~_

_Um…_Jack thought.  _Well, where _are_ you, exactly, if you're "trapped"?_

_~Our world!~_

Jack resisted the urge to groan.  _I'm hearing ghosts,_ she thought.

_~Again, we're not dead, so you're not hearing ghosts,~_ Kirsten told her.

_Just figments of my imagination—that's it!  When I hit my head, I must have been knocked out, and this is just God's joke on me, letting me hear the voices of my _dead and decaying_ friends whom my mind won't let me forget!_  **[Ash: Lovely image there.]  **She was very close to tears now, and didn't realize that she was being moved again.

_~Figments?~_ Kirsten choked out.

_~God's joke?!~_

_~NOT IN OUR WORLD!~_ they yelled in unison, and everything went dark again.

~&~

"What do we do with him?"

"He can't stay here."

Daniel struggled to see who was talking, but the near-darkness of the room made it impossible.  All of the men who had been there had left, except for the man who understood Welsh and the so-called "leader".  Not only did both of them have that damned British accent, they sounded so much alike that Daniel couldn't tell who was who, though he had been able to with the rest.

"Well, what do you want me to do with him?  I can't very well kill him, can I?"

They laughed, one low and rumbling, the other scratchy.

"Drive him out to that shed back in the Battleground area.  They're still investigating the first one where the two girls were murdered and the third found, so it's relatively safe—for now.  Don't forget to keep moving."

"D'you think I'm stupid, Malfoy?"

**[Ash: Lucky for him, you weren't there.]**

**[QoC: Now why would you say that???]**

Daniel's heart leapt; a name!

"Yes, quite."  Daniel jumped as the sound of someone being punched broke the brief silence in speech, and a groan that punctuated the thump of someone hitting the floor.

"Now get him out of here."

~&~

Lia and Chris rushed into the main lobby of the hospital, their clothes soaked and sticking to their bodies.

"Can you tell me where Jack Gilligan is roomed?" Lia panted.

The orderly glanced at them through her glasses and then at her computer monitor.  The keys on the keyboard clicked as her manicured nails hit them.

"No Jack Gilligan on record."

Lia felt as though she had been hit with a sledgehammer.  _Shit!_ She thought, her mind racing.  _She's been kidnapped again!  She's dead for sure—_

"How about Jessakah Gilligan?" Chris asked, breaking her train of thought.

"Spell the first name, please."

Chris did so.  The keys clicked again.

"Nope."

Lia tugged anxiously on her stringy curls, which were starting to frizz up in a halo of hair.

"Jessica Gilligan.  Jessica Ashley."

The orderly rolled her eyes, obviously thinking it a hopeless task to keep searching, and typed it in.

The computer beeped.

"Oh…room 335, second floor."

"Thank you," Chris said eagerly, relief flooding into his voice.  They began to walk quickly towards the elevator when Lia spun on her toes.

"By the way, her name's Jessakah, not Jessica.  HUGE difference."

~&~

Zack furrowed his brow in an attempt to quell the almost incessant giggling.  Finally, in an act of desperation, he yelled, "Quit it!"

The giggling stopped almost immediately.  _~You didn't have to yell, you know.~_

Zack felt the blood drain from his face.  "What?"

~And you don't have to speak out loud, either.  It echoes awfully when you do that.~

"What do you mean, not speak out loud?  How else am I to talk to you?  And how are you talking to me!"  The Brit glanced around the room, and leaned over to peek into the closet.  There was no one else in the room, just as he'd suspected.  "There's no one else in here!"

_~Well, physically, no.~_

_~But otherwise, yup!~_

Zack suddenly recognized the voices.  "Kirsten?  Inad?  What are you doing in here?  And what do you mean?!"

_~Well…~_  Inad started to say.

_~To put it bluntly….~_

They both giggled.  _~We're in our world, which is somehow linked to your head.~_

_Our world?_ he thought, bewildered.

_~Yes, our world.~_

Zack felt just about to pass out.  _You…you can hear me?_

_~Well, why not?!~_ Inad asked.

_~I mean, we are in your head, technically…~_

~&~

They stood in the doorway, Lia hugging her arms around her trembling body, Chris just staring at the motionless figure on the bed.

"Go in," Lia said in a hushed voice, as though she were afraid that she would wake the apparently slumbering teen.  She shivered, and her teeth began to chatter.  Why did they have to keep the hospital so damn cold?!

"After you."

Lia turned, shaking harder, to face Chris.

"Go!"

"Ladies first."  He caught her gaze and Lia fixed him with a stare that was so unfriendly that he raised his eyebrows.  "Okay, then…."  He walked over the threshold, leaving Lia alone in the doorway, listening to the soft pats of dripping water as they hit the ground, and the sound of Chris' shoes as he walked towards the bed.

Lia was confused by the emotions she felt in her body.  She had, momentarily, forgotten the deaths of Kirsten and Inad, yet a lurking sadness in the depth of her stomach made her feel as though she should have tears streaming from her eyes, that she should be wrapped tightly in the arms of….

Lia shook her head mentally.  No.  She wasn't supposed to do that.  It wasn't right!  He was a year, three months, and seven days younger than her!

**[Ash: Wow…down to the day!  She _must_ like him!]**

**[QoC: …yah…about that….]**

A burning sensation began to build up in her nose, and a sneeze exploded from her, knocking her backwards and into the far wall.

Chris's sniggering met her ears.  "You butt," she accused him, and then her eyes widened.  A flurry of curses left her mouth, and she turned to leave.

"Where are you going?"

"To report you to the cops."  Lia turned just in time to see the bewildered and surprised look on Chris' face.  "I'm joking…I left my purse at the police station…."

"Mother Dearest will take you," Chris offered eloquently.

Lia turned once more, rolling her eyes, and sprinted down the hallway, her sneakers squelching with every step.

~&~

Daniel felt himself being lifted off of the chair (although how, he didn't know, as he couldn't feel anyone touching him), and soon felt the cool air of the outdoors on his skin, mingled with the light spitting of rain.  He had no idea where he was, nor could he see anything.  Somehow, his kidnappers had made it so he couldn't open his eyes, yet nothing was touching them.

Whatever had lifted him into the air abruptly dropped him.  He was dragged to his feet so fast that he felt a muscle in his neck tense up in protest.

"Hurry up and get in the car!"

Daniel dug his feet into the ground in an attempt to stop himself from being shoved any further, and his head was hit hard by his captor's hand.  His ears ringing, Daniel felt himself being shoved into what felt like a car to his shins.  He heard another car's horn honked loudly, and then a resounding _smack!_  Daniel supposed that Malfoy was tired of waiting and had leaned on his own car horn.

When the door opened again, Daniel was surprised.  He was even more surprised that he was suddenly able to see once more.  He squinted as he tried to get his eyes to adjust to the semi-darkness.  Lia's pale and startled face swam into view.

"What the hell?!" she yelled, leaping back.  Daniel struggled to sit up and only succeeded in falling off of the back seat.  Face down with his nose stuffed in the carpet of the nasty smelling car, the teen groaned: _Now what?_

He let out a muffled yell as he felt Lia's hand rummaging over his butt and into his pockets, but relaxed as she pulled out his knife; how she knew that he kept it there was beyond him, but it was the only way to loosen the ropes around his wrists.  Once he was free, he pulled himself gingerly to his feet and shook his hands to get the circulation to return.  "How did—what—"

"What are _you_ doing alive?!" Lia burst out, and then her cheeks began to redden.  "Sorry…that sounded _really_ ungracious…"

"Yes, it did," Daniel said sarcastically.  Annoyed with himself, he shivered, and then blinked confusedly as Lia thrust a large coat at him.  He found as he put it on that it belonged to Chris.  "In any case, I hope that Jack was smart enough to recognize the man who tried to impersonate me."

"What?" Lia looked confused.

Daniel's half grin vanished from his face.  "She didn't?  Shit!"  He began to walk, and then realized that he had absolutely no idea where he was.  Then he remembered the car horn and the smack, and looked around.  Chris' mother was standing over a body that looked as though it wasn't in very good condition, and saw her car a few feet further on.

"Impersonate?  All I know is that you're supposed to be dead!"

"Uh…Lia, you know what, we might want to get out of here."

**[Ash: Hit and run!  Cool!!]**

"Hello!  Daniel, Mrs. Graham hit that man!  I mean, he _was_ trying to kidnap you, or something—wait, you _are_ Daniel, aren't you?  You aren't some, I dunno, doppelganger or something, are you?"

**[Nova: It's doppelgänger.]**

**[QoC: Really?  I've never seen it spelled that way.]**

**[Nova: Germans like little dotty things.  Americans, not so much.  Too bad for us, it's a German word.]**

**[QoC: Too bad for me, M.W. says that there's no dotty thing….]**

Daniel raised an eyebrow.  "I would hope not.  Are you feeling okay?"

Lia set her face stubbornly.  "When's my birthday?"

"November eighth."

"Wait, anyone could find that out," Lia said out loud to nobody in particular.  "How many schools have I gone to?"

"Nine, and it would have been ten had you moved your sophomore year to Arizona, or New York, or wherever, and right now I wish that you had!"

**[Ash: Sure she just saved his life practically.]**

Lia looked satisfied, if a little hurt.  "Okay, I believe you…but you didn't have to be so blunt."

Daniel glanced towards the shack.  "Uh, we'd better go…"

"You keep saying that, but it would be a hit-and-run!"

"Not if we're trying to get away from some particularly evil and sadistic people!"

"Well…when you put it that way…" Lia tugged him over to the car and convinced Mrs. Graham to leave the now groaning man, who appeared to be waking up.

"So, where's Jack?"

"At the hospital."

"What?!"

"She was kidnapped, we found her, and then she was nearly killed by you, who's now dead—uh, I mean, by…dammit, I don't know anything anymore!"

_Neither do I,_ Daniel thought darkly.  "Anyways, why is she at the hospital?"

"She hit her head, or something…I dunno, something left over from earlier, in any case.  That's where we're going now; we left Chris there."

_Oh, I see the way things are,_ Daniel thought bitterly.  _Leave her with the hospital while the boyfriend is locked in a dark and smelly room with nobody but crazy men to talk to…if you could even describe it like that._

~&~

A strange noise met Jack's ears.  She didn't move, for fear that it was someone who meant her harm.  She strained her ears, trying to pick up more of what it was.

She finally realized that it was the sound of someone crying.

Jack opened her eyes and rolled her head slightly to the side.  For some reason, it was difficult to do so, and she was having trouble keeping her eyelids open.

Chris was sitting in a chair, by the bed, shaking.  As Jack became more and more aware of her surroundings, she realized it was mostly because his clothes appeared to be quite wet, and the room _was_ chilly.  Jack licked her cracked lips to return some moisture to them and spoke: "What's the matter?"  Her own voice shocked her; it was crackly and low, as though she had been sick for a long time and was only just recovering.  Chris' head shot up in surprise.  He stood quickly and turned away, looking out the window.  Jack followed his gaze and saw that the skies had darkened considerably; a light _tap, tap_ sound against the window announced that it was raining.

Chris cleared his throat but didn't turn around.  "You okay?"

"I don't know, really."  Slowly, as though someone had turned on a tap, Jack felt her energy returning to her.  Unfortunately, as her energy level increased, so did the pain in her head and leg.  She haltingly pulled herself up into a sitting position against the pillows of her bed.  "I feel really weak…"

"They had you drugged."  Jack found it disturbing to hear the tremor in his voice.  She wished that the light were on, so that she could see his reflection on the window.  "Someone came in here a few minutes ago and stopped the flow from the IV so that you would wake up; they said that you had started to freak out in the ambulance and they had to knock you out…that you were screaming about ghosts, or something like that."

Jack turned her head away and shut her eyes tightly.  All the pain of the day, both emotional and physical, returned full force.  The sight of Kirsten and Inad's bodies flooded into view, quickly followed by Daniel's hollow, sadistic laugh echoing in her ears.****

There was a squeak, and then another, and then the squeaks were lost in the rush of memories, of blood pounding in her ears.  She couldn't help the sobs that racked her body, and when the cold, wet form embraced her, she yelled and pulled away from him.  The teen opened her eyes and saw Chris quickly retreating, his eyes holding a hurt look.

"I'm sorry," Jack choked out, hugging herself.  "I just…I can't…."

"It's okay," Chris said quickly.  Jack looked at him, her sight blurry from the tears that were coursing down her cheeks, and saw that he couldn't even look her in the eye.

She looked down at her hands twisting on top of the sheets, her hair falling across her face.  "I just don't know who to trust anymore," she said in a whisper.

Chris came over and sat down on the side of the bed, and she looked up at him.  "You can trust me," he whispered.  She looked into his blue eyes, so much brighter than Daniel's had ever been.  She closed her eyes again and shook with sobs again.  This time she accepted Chris's hug, and the dampness that came with it.  It soaked through the thin hospital gown and made her skin clammy, yet the feeling told her that she was still alive, that this wasn't just some strange demented dream designed to terrorize her.

They sat there like that for what felt like an eternity, Jack crying into his shoulder, their bodies shaking with the effort of trying to stay warm.  Finally, Jack felt that she could cry no more.  She looked up into Chris's face, which held a softness that quieted her even more, so that only the occasional hiccough broke the silence.

Jack felt herself leaning forward, her mind focused on one thing.

~&~

"What made you think to come back for your purse?" Daniel asked as they pulled into the hospital parking lot.

"Just the fact that I remembered that it might be a good idea to call my mother and let her know where I was going."

"Well, thank you for being absentminded."

Lia turned to look at him, sure that her face was contorted in confusion.  _Why is he thanking me for forgetting stuff?_ she wondered.  _Most people just yell at me…_

"I mean, if you hadn't, you and Mrs. Graham wouldn't have found me."

"Oh.  That's what you meant."

"Yeah…so, continue to forget things when people are missing, please.  You might end up helping them escape."

Lia grinned sheepishly, and then remembered what had happened with Kirsten and Inad.  Her smile disappeared.  "Are you saying that it's my fault that Kirsten and Inad are dead?"

**[QoC: Phh…silly girl…'course not!!]**

Daniel looked shocked.  "Dead?" he spluttered.  "Lia—no, I had no idea!"

Lia looked out the window.  "I thought they might have told you."

"All they kept saying was that the 'other two were dead', and that their deaths were a mistake."

Lia laughed bitterly.  "Well this is one mistake that they can't undo."

The car was silent the rest of the way to the hospital.

~&~

 Chris' brain was left in a whirl.  He had kissed Jack, one of his best friends.  He had kissed his friend's girlfriend.  Dammit, he'd kissed someone who had a boyfriend who was two years older than him!

**[Nova:  Hehe!  So funny, the Liz…so funny….]**

**[QoC: …Have you been eating ice cream before editing again?  I don't see how it's funny…but that's just me….]**

They pulled away, Jack looking startled and Chris feeling embarrassed.  "Jack, I'm—"

The look in her eyes stopped him, and he no longer cared.

~&~

"Which room was it again?  Three-thirty-three, I think…" Lia continued to talk to herself all the way down the hallway, yanking on her yet again soaked curls, which for some reason remained limp.  Daniel was growing bored of her talk, so he hushed her until they reached the door.  Lia knocked three times and then pushed it open.  Four unfamiliar faces stared at them.

"Uhh," Daniel whispered in her ear.  "I don't think this is the right room."

"Oops!" Lia said in a silly voice.  "Wrong door!"  She shut it quickly and leaned into her hands.  "Damn!  Which one is it…?"  She stared at the rest of the identical doors in the hall, as though trying to see a landmark that would remind her of Jack's room.

"Could she have been taken home?" Daniel asked, putting his hand in his pocket.  He winced, realizing that his wallet and cell phone were not there, and lamented the fact that the kidnappers had probably taken them from him.

"No, I remember now—it's three-thirty-five, not three-three-three…."

**[Ash: Don't multiply that by two.]**

They walked to the right door and Lia opened it.

Two figures were sitting on the bed, one of them actually under the covers, although the other was pretty close.  The lights were turned off, though Daniel couldn't see why.  It looked like they were kissing.

"Dammit, not again!" Lia growled, angry that she couldn't be depended on for remembering a room number.  Daniel didn't think so, and as dread filled his stomach, he turned on the lights.

Jack and Chris sprang apart from each other like startled rabbits.

Daniel gaped at them.  "What the f—!"

--------------------

Mwahaha!!  It just gets better and better, doesn't it!!

* Originally, this chapter was in two sections, Hearing Ghosts and Scandalous Affairs.  I was so angry when I found out that I couldn't keep both of them, that there was a small accident in the WP, resulting in the formation of Hearing Scandalous Ghost Affairs.  Okay, so it's not the same.  But what can you do?!

Okay, next chapter: we find out what Lia and Daniel do to Chris and Jack, the Hogwarts gang comes to Skyview, and a dance is announced.  Whoopie!!  Perhaps you should hope we have more snow days, because then I could have more time to write….::evil grin::

* * *


	11. Chapter Eleven: Dry Your Tears

**A/N**: For the funeral portion of Chapter Twelve, listen to track seven ("Answer") of Sarah McLaughlan's "Afterglow."  Idunno why, but it really stirs up feelings of sadness…probably the depressing piano part.  If you don't have the cd, I'm sorry…you'll just have to go out and buy this beautiful collection of music (she's a goddess!!  OMG, I wish I could sing like her….)

This has taken way to long to get out.  My only excuse is AP testing, followed by a series of bone-crushing projects, followed by finals cramming, followed by studying to take the written and the drive to get my license (YAY!!!!), followed by the fact that I had a very, _very_ early case of senioritis.  For you medical students who randomly read my book, don't get technical with me with the suffix…. X

**D/C**:  This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books, and Warner Bros., Inc.  No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.

[Insert long list of names here that's posted in chapter five]are based upon actual people, but their names have been changed to protect the actual persons from a life of fame and wealth (hah!  You wish…).

"Talking inside of each other's heads" was made up by the real Kirsten and Inad.  They came up with it freshman year.  I have yet to figure out whether they actually do it or not.

The majority of the comments in this story actually came from the people that are said to have said them.  A few were added by me, but I won't tell you which ones, 'cuz that would spoil the whole story.  ::sticks out tongue::

Some of the italicized lines are from Sarah McLaughlan's song "Answer".    I strongly suggest that if you are a fan of light rock that you go out and buy the CD.  OMG, it's heavenly.

… means that it's a memory…

Chapter Eleven – Dry Your Tears

_"There are some things you just gotta do."_

_Kaori Hirashi_

"—uck!"

Lia stood there, Daniel's words ringing strangely in her ears.  She felt as though she had been doused in a bucket of ice-cold water; icicles were now growing from her heart, which was being squeezed so hard she thought it would burst.

She didn't see Chris' face pale rapidly, even though she was looking right at him; nor did she hear Jack denying their actions: "We didn't mean it, it just happened!"

She didn't register any of it.  Jack glanced at Lia, as though hoping she would realize what had happened.

"How could you?" Lia whispered hoarsely.  Jack gave up and looked away.  Just as she had felt that she didn't have any more tears to cry, Lia knew that her face was shining and wet from the new ones that were crawling down her cheeks.  "How…how co—" her voice broke, and she turned and ran from the room.

No one followed.

&

Hermione was laughing.  Her smile covered her entire face, and her eyes sparkled brightly.

She felt so happy, happier than she could remember feeling for a long time.

Harry grinned back at her.  He playfully pushed her shoulder, in a joking manner.  Hermione only laughed harder.  The force of the push, combined with her laughter caused her to lose her balance.  She suddenly found herself on the floor of the hotel room, her body aching from the fall.

"Thank the Gods," a sneering voice said.  "If there's one thing I hate more than a sleeping Gryffindor, it's a sleep-talking, sleeping Gryffindor!"

The head girl, very disoriented, got to her feet and untangled herself from the bed sheets that had come with her when she fell.  "Ten points from Slytherin, Zambini.  You could have hurt me."

Blaise sneered and brushed her shining auburn hair from her face.  "It's a pity you weren't."

"Another ten points, and a detention with Filch when we get back to Hogwarts."

"Ms. Granger," said a new, sleepy voice.  Hermione saw that their conversation had woken everyone else in the room, including Professor White.  "I believe that the school we will be attending supports detentions.  Why don't we check with them on what they do?"

"I will not serve a detention there!" Blaise cried indignantly.  "With—" she scoffed, and then continued—"with Muggles?!"

"Yes.  With Muggles.  Oh, yes, I nearly forgot: you _will_ turn your wands into me tomorrow morning.  You took this trip to experience life as a Muggle, so you will live as a Muggle for the next four months."  She smiled sweetly as the words sunk in.

&

Jack picked at her blanket, her heart hammering in her chest.  _I can't believe that just happened,_ she thought to herself.  _Daniel and Lia just walking—_  She stopped suddenly and looked up again at Daniel's livid expression.  _Daniel!_  "You…you're dead!"

"Yeah, I keep hearing that," he replied sarcastically.

"You tried to kill me!"

"Well, I guess it's too bad _I_ failed, then, isn't it?"  He glared at Jack and Chris.  Jack felt herself trembling again, and she glanced quickly to her right.  This being her second time in a hospital in three months, she knew where the nurse service button was.

And the security button.

&

[QoC: Here ya go, Inad.  You can quit asking me to put more parts with you and Kirsten in, now….]

Inad crossed her legs among the pile of fuzzy pink pillows and leaned back contentedly.  "So, what do we do now?"

Kirsten gathered her platinum blond hair behind her head, and then stretched her arms back, so the curls bounced perfectly.  "We could pester Zack and Jack more."

"Nah, that got old when Zack came to the conclusion that he was talking to himself."

"Well, what about Jack?"

Inad turned to glance behind her at what should have been a wall, but instead was more like a giant window, showing Jack in a hospital bed, Chris on the floor near the bed, and Daniel at the door.  The latter of the boys had a furious expression on his face, while Chris seemed to be almost scared.

"I wonder what happened?" Kirsten said.

"Why do you say that?"

"Well, Daniel looks about ready to kill Jack, which is just a little bit abnormal."

"Just a tad."

"Shall we see what happened?"

"Okay!  Would you like some Skittles?"

"I didn't see any when we got here."

Inad looked down at the floor, and a bowl of brightly colored candies appeared.  "I think that all we have to do to get anything we want here is just will it to be."

"Cool!  So I could wish the hottest guy in the universe to be here, and he'd appear?"

"Is that all you can think about right now, guys?  We have this juicy drama about to unfold right here, and the first thing you think about is men."  Inad laughed.

Kirsten frowned.  "Maybe later then.  Drama, now; boys, later."

&

Daniel watched Jack's face as it darted to the side.  _What's she looking for?_ he wondered.  _Probably something to throw at me._

Then he thought back to what she'd just said:

_"You…you're dead!"_

_"Yeah, I keep hearing that."_

_"You tried to kill me!"_

_"Well, I guess it's too bad I failed, then, isn't it?"_

_Oh.  That makes sense.  Shit!_  "Jack, wait!"  He lunged at the bed, and grabbed her arm so that she couldn't press the security button.  Jack shrieked loudly, and started to beat him wildly with her free arm.  "Jack, stop, _stop!_"  Daniel grabbed her other arm, and was surprised as Chris barreled into him, knocking him from his perch on the bed.

"I don't know who—"

"Chris!  It's me!  I know what happened!"  Daniel glanced quickly to Jack, who had frozen in her place, one arm outstretched for the button.  He saw Chris back away out of the corner of his eye, and Daniel slowly got to his feet, his hands in the air.  "I know what happened."

So he explained everything.

&

Back at the police station, Lia stuck the key in the ignition and turned the engine, listening to it splutter as it tried to catch.  She sat there, tears pouring down her face, trying to ignore the image of Chris kissing Jack.  She tried to ignore the pain she felt in her heart from losing Kirsten and Inad.

She tried to ignore the pain of losing Chris.

Finally, she gave up on trying to start the car and just leaned against the steering wheel, sobbing so hard that she didn't know if she'd ever be able to stop.

&

Jack sat on her bed, numb, as Daniel finished telling his story.

"Lia found me—well, she and Mrs. Graham nearly ran me over, actually—and told me what had happened to you.  I don't know who that man was, but he wasn't me.  I can tell you that much."  Daniel was looking right into Jack's eyes.  For some reason, she believed him, but the guilt at her and Chris's actions drove her to look away.

His hand gently grasped her chin, and she looked back to him again.

"As for what you and Chris have done," he said, "I don't know what to say.  Walking into the room where my girlfriend is supposed to be lying unconscious in to find her making out with one of my friends was extremely unsettling."

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Chris shift uncomfortably.

Daniel closed his eyes, and with a jolt Jack realized just what he was doing.

"I don't want to see you anymore."

&

Tears dripped silently down Pyro's face as she laid on her bed at home, her arms pillowed behind her head.  Nik sat next to her, gently stroking her hair.

"Why them?" she asked, finally breaking the quiet of the room.  "Why did it have to be them?"

"Why not?" Nik said bitterly.  "If it hadn't been them, who would you rather it had been?"

Pyro closed her eyes in pain and tried to stop herself from sobbing.  "I didn't mean—didn't mean it like that."

Nik's lips brushed the tip of her nose, and then he pressed his face to the top of her head.  "I know that.  You need to think of it this way, though: I know that you miss them, but sometimes it just ends up being their purpose in life, to have made that little touch on yours."

"Nik, don't go all religious on me," Pyro scoffed through her tears.

"I'm not," he said softly.

They remained silent for a while, and then Pyro asked, "You're thinking of her, aren't you?"  When Nik didn't respond, she sat up and looked at him.  "Your mother?"

Nik's eyes looked strange as they gleamed with tears.  "You should treasure the time you had with your friends," he told her.  He got up, collected his jacket, and left through Pyro's bedroom door.

Taking a deep breath, Pyro did the only thing that seemed sensible to do at that moment, and began to get ready for bed.  It was going to be a long day tomorrow…and the next…and the one after that….

&

Hermione took a deep breath as they approached the school.  She hoisted her bag back up onto her shoulder, and glanced around at Ron, who stood nervously beside her.  This was the first time any of them had been without their wands in a long time, the first time that any of them had encountered Muggles in this number.

"Well, let's go in, then," she said.

Ron nodded, looking as though he had a snitch lodged in his throat.

Hermione closed her hand on the metal handle of the door and pulled it open.  Instantly, noise burst from the hall, causing more than one of the students to jump back in surprise.  Raucous laughing filled their ears.

"Okay," Ron said.  "I'm ready to go home now."

Hermione straightened her back and led the way through the doors into the commons.

It wasn't actually so bad once they got inside.  All they received was a passing glance, nothing more than a customary look that barely acknowledged their presence.

"So…this is Skylook?"

"Sky_view_, Ron."

"Yeah, that.  This is it?"

"I guess so."

He paused and glanced around.  "D'you think there are any wiz—"

"Shhh!"  Hermione rounded on him and clamped her hand over his mouth.  Then, in hushed tones, she continued.  "You're going to have to stop doing that, mentioning stuff from the you-know-where," she told him.

Ron practically ignored her warning.  "Well?  Do you?"

Hermione thought for a moment, and then answered, "I don't think so.  They have you-know-whating schools over here, too."

"Oh."  They stopped as the mass of Americans in front of them stopped in the middle of the hall as well.

Hermione waited patiently for them to move, and when they didn't, she turned around and tried to find another way around.  Finally, she located a way, but it, too, was blocked by a gaggle of giggling girls, all wearing excruciatingly short skirts that were alternating blue and white, with a silver lining.

"Goddamn preps," someone muttered behind her, and Hermione jumped in surprise as two girls, quickly followed by about five more, pushed past her and rudely ploughed their way through the teenagers in front of them.

"Now what?" Ginny asked from behind Ron.

Hermione suddenly grinned.  "Well, when in Rome…."

&

It could be said that Lia wasn't in the best of moods that Monday morning.  She pulled into the parking lot as usual (barely missing two girls who were standing on the corner of the parking lot, cigarettes in mouth, busily becoming human chimneys), glanced around for a parking spot, and quickly drove to the first one available.  It was reasonably good, one that would definitely be easy to get out of once school ended for the day.

Lia killed the engine and rummaged around in the back seat for her book bag.  She pulled it into her lap, and glanced in.  The first thing that she saw was that she had left one of her binders at home.  The next thing was that someone had slipped a bag of Skittles in without her knowing.

Biting her lip to hold back tears, she opened the door and immediately had to shut it again to avoid having it be swiped off by a blue beater car that quickly rolled in.  After murmuring a few choice cuss words, Lia stepped out and glared at the owner.  "Therese, you need to be more careful."

"Why?"

"You just about took off my door!"

"Oh.  Sorry."

"Yeah."  Lia pulled her jacket tightly around her and then swung her bag over her head.

"You okay?"

"Huh?"

"You seem…I dunno, detached.  And where are Chris and Zack?"

Lia shifted her head just so slightly so that Therese wouldn't catch the tears now rolling freely down her face.  In her best, everything's-fine-nothing's-wrong voice, she replied, "They're getting a ride from Jack today."

"But it's way out of her way!  And you always—"

"Never mind, Therese."

"But—"

"Dammit, I said, 'never mind'!"  She rounded on the girl, her eyes fierce and wild.

Therese looked as though she'd been smacked in the face.  "Well, fine then.  Be the bitch you are."

Lia sighed unhappily and walked away.  Her fights with Therese were almost as frequent as they were with Jack, except she always seemed to leave them feeling more annoyed than amused.

As she approached the building, she saw a group of students and two adults standing outside, warily looking at the doors.  A girl with fairly bushy hair reached forward and pulled the door open.  Lia almost laughed out loud when several of the students jumped back.

Walking quickly, she reached the doors about the same time the last student walked in, so she followed.  They stopped when they saw the blockade of preps.  Lia waited for a few minutes, listening to them talk.

"So…this is Skylook?"  The boy had a thick, British accent, which completely betrayed the fact that these kids were the foreign exchange students.  Plus, getting the name of her school wrong was another complete giveaway that it wasn't just another transfer student.

"Sky_view_, Ron."

"Yeah, that.  This is it?"

"I guess so."

Lia rolled her eyes.

"Do you think they're gonna move?" Therese asked her, seeming to forget that she was mad at Lia.

"Probably not.  I'll bet they don't know that the only way to get through here is to attack your way through."  Lia waited for a few more seconds as the bushy-haired girl thoughtfully watched the preps, and then exploded.  "Goddamn preps!"  She barreled through the Brits, and on through the now very startled preps, who quickly cleared the way for the enraged teen.

Lia continued onward to the table, where she plopped down in a chair and brooded.  Seeing Jack on the opposite side, Lia ignored her and pulled out her current reading book for English and began her adventure of catching up.  She didn't see any point, as she knew that her teacher, who was, incidentally, the coach of Skyview's swim team, would extend the reading date for her.

Well, most likely, anyway.

Rubbing her arm angrily, Lia stood up again and threw her bag over her right shoulder and felt it collide with someone.

"Ouch!"

Lia turned in surprise and saw that she had knocked over Zack.  "Oops, sorry…."

Zack stared at her from the floor, and when a blank look came across his face, she panicked.

"What'd you do?!" Therese asked, kneeling down beside him and tapping his glasses slightly, as though it would make a difference in his comatose state.

"Backpack," she said distantly.

"Could you have hit him any harder?"

"Probably."

Lia watched Zack closely, examining his pale face, the circles under his emerald green eyes, and his dark hair.  She squinted slightly: was there a scar above his right eyebrow?  Resting her left arm on her knee, Lia leaned forward to brush the hairs off of his brow.

An iron hand clamped around her wrist, and the teen jumped.  Zack appeared to have awoken, and was quickly sitting up.

"Er, sorry," he said sheepishly, a bit of color staining his cheeks.  Lia didn't shift her gaze: when he had sat up, his bangs had shifted and revealed a lightning-shaped scar.  She stared at it, wondering where it could have come from.  It was old, she could tell that.  But where could such an unusual shaped scar come from?  She leaned forward and touched it gingerly with one finger.

There was a loud _zaaaaap!_, and Lia was thrown backwards into the crowd of people, excruciating pain shooting up and down her left arm.

&

The hairs crackled strangely on the back of her neck.  Hermione turned, recognizing the sensation as powerful magics being unleashed.  They had all received the same warning: _If you use your magic while at Skyview, you will immediately return to England, and be suspended indefinitely from Hogwarts._

So who was being foolish enough to cast something with force enough to even turn Neville's head in confusion in the very center of Muggles?

&

Inad's eyes widened.  "What was that?"

"I don't know…I've never seen anything like _that_ before," Kirsten answered, overturning the bowl of Skittles as she hastened to her feet to pause the huge window they were looking through.  Lia's face radiated the pain that she felt, and her right hand was clamped around her left arm.

"It was almost as though he was full of electricity, and just kinda _pushed_ her backwards!"  Inad joined Kirsten by the window.  With her mind, she rewound the view until it was focused on the very millisecond that the strange occurrence happened.  A strange, red light was lining most of Lia's body, with the exception of a pure, bluish-white portion around her left arm.

"Whatever is going on, it's not normal," Kirsten told her.  The girls sat stunned, and then continued to watch.

&

Jack's jaw dropped.  "What the hell?!"  She turned to Zack, her eyes lingering only briefly on his befuddled expression, before returning her gaze to Lia, who was now halfway across the commons.  Most of the students were screaming, thinking that someone was trying to attack them, while others were running in a frenzied panic.  In either case, Lia quickly vanished in a sea of people trying to get out of the commons.  She spotted Pyro diving in (when had she arrived?), and Nik following after her.  Therese stood next to her, staring open mouthed at the din.

"What the hell just happened?" she heard Zack saying behind her, she turned again, seeing him rubbing his forehead.

"That's what I'd like to know," she responded.  "Let's get out of here, though!  We're going to get trampled if we don't move."

The fire alarms went off suddenly, and Jack started moving towards the closest exit: the front doors, where 80% of the school was also heading.  If there really was a fire, they were going to be in a lot of trouble….

&

Lia dimly heard the screams of the people around her.  The pain in her arm was radiating up and down so badly she thought she was going to pass out.

Instead, just as Pyro and Nik broke through the crowd, it ended so quickly, that she saw stars in front of her eyes.

"Lia!" Pyro's voice was saying, seemingly through a cloud.  "Lia!"

Lia shook her head to clear the stars, and opened her eyes again.  The fire alarm went off, and she got quickly to her feet.

"What the hell was that?" Pyro demanded.

Lia glanced to Nik, and he seemed to know.  Or, if he didn't, he was just looking at her in a very strange way.

"Let's get out of here," Lia, said, and they ran to the doors with everyone else.

&

"What do you mean, she got away?!"

Lucius Malfoy flinched involuntarily as a buzz of red, crackling energy zipped past him, missing his face by mere inches.  "It is just that, milord.  She was locked in the closet, and when we returned—"

Voldemort narrowed his already slit-like crimson eyes.  "Yes, I am aware of what happened.  I am also aware that you captured her boyfriend, used his hair in a polyjuice potion with Crabbe."

"Yes, that is true."

"_Crucio_!"

Malfoy felt himself seized with an intense pain, and couldn't keep himself from screaming.

"Crabbe is dead, killed by Muggle police.  Goyle, when sent out to take care of the boy, was hit by an automobile.  He is in St. Mungos now."

"And the boy, milord?"  The pain had stopped, and Malfoy was now breathing heavily.

Voldemort leaned forward on his chair, chin in his hands.  "The boy escaped with the automobile that hit Goyle.  It turned out they were friends of his."

Malfoy said nothing.

"If the authorities get a hold on this boy, we are in trouble.  He was no twin."

Again, Malfoy said nothing.  They were in more trouble than Lord Voldemort realized.  The boy knew his name….

&

Lia sat on the cot in the nurse's office, a bored expression on her face.  The students had been allowed back in the school when they realized there was nothing wrong.  Someone claimed to have popped a balloon when the explosion was heard, and since nobody was hurt, they decided that the situations were coincidental.

Except….

_I know that something isn't right,_ Lia thought to herself as the nurse unwrapped her arm.  _My arm hasn't stopped throbbing in days, and now it just…stops?  Random…._

The rest of the bandage came away, and the nurse gently lifted the gauze.

The stitches—and any other evidence of her injury—were gone.  Lia stared transfixed at where the wound should have been, and then felt suddenly light-headed.  What had happened when Zack touched her?  Why was her arm, so grievously wounded in a crash that should have killed the boy, miraculously healed?

"You said you had a cut here?"

"Y-yes…umm…."  The light-headedness hadn't yet left her, and she had to lean against the wall, she was so dizzy.  "It…it was there this morning…."

"Well, it isn't there now, Ms. Florence.  If you continue to fake injuries like this, you will be given detention.  Claiming an injury and then using up precious time of a school nurse is seen as a bad thing.  You will be excused this one time, Lia, because you were thrown across the floor.  Now, if you have no further practical jokes…?"

Instantly, Lia was angry.  She shook her head to clear the dizziness, and rolled up the ACE bandage.  As she got up to leave, she turned to face the nurse.  "It wasn't a joke, ma'am.  You can ask anyone else who was in that wreck with me.  I had a cut from here to here."  She traced a light line on her arm to demonstrate.  "If you don't believe me that—"

"Ms. Florence.  If you are quite finished…?"

Lia got the point, and stormed angrily out of the office to her morning classes.

&

Two days later couldn't have been more different from the atmosphere of the school that day.  Dressed all in black, something unusual for the normally bright and cheerful teen, Lia stood alone next to a tree.  The only protection she had from the weather was an umbrella, big enough for only one person.  The tree seemed to be the only thing keeping her up.

Ahead through the haze, Lia could just make out the procession of people, all filling past tombstone after tombstone.  They carried between them two coffins, both holding the bodies of two of her friends.

Tears further blurred the curly-haired teen's vision, threatening to fall down the curves of her face. Somehow, she held them back, and began to walk forward.  Somewhere, a lone yet powerful voice sang a song.

_I will be the answer_

_At the end of the line_

As Lia got closer, she could make out the individual faces of the people in the procession.  The coffin bearers were people that she didn't know, but the people surrounding them were friends, family, admirers.  She noticed Jack leaning heavily onto Chris, as though he was the only thing that kept her moving.  Nik and Pyro, and even Daniel had come.  He looked up at her, as though sensing her arrival.

_I will be there for you_

_While you take the time _

_In the burning of uncertainty_

_I will be your solid ground_

Lia fell into step beside him.  Neither of them said a word.  They didn't have to.  He understood that she was in a lot of pain, what with losing two of her friends, and practically losing another with Chris and Jack being….

And Lia understood Daniel.

_I will hold the balance_

_When you can't look down_

The minister of the church (Lia couldn't remember the name.  In any case, it didn't matter) began to read _The Order For The Burial Of The Dead_.  Instead of listening to the minister, though, Lia focused in on the singer.

_If it takes my whole life_

_I won't break, I won't bend_

_It will all be worth it_

_Worth it in the end_

_'Cuz I can only tell you what I know_

_That I need you in my life_

_When the stars have all gone out_

_You'll still be burning so bright_

Lia looked towards Jack, and noticed that she was looking back at her, her eyes full of tears.

_Cast me gently into morning_

_For the night has been unkind._

_I'm so sorry,_ she mouthed.  Lia closed her eyes and felt the tears that once again threatened to overflow.  She walked over to Jack and embraced her.  The whirling pain that she'd felt deep within her heart finally overcame her, and she began to sob into her friend's shoulder.  Over the noise she was making, she could hear Jack doing the same thing.

_Take me to a place so holy_

_That I can wash this from my mind_

_The memory of choosing not to fight_

"Here," a voice whispered.  Both girls broke the hug and looked at Chris, who, with red-rimmed eyes, looked back with sympathy.  He held two tissues in his hands.  "You can use these to dry your tears."

Lia couldn't help but smile through her tears.  Somehow she knew that she couldn't be mad at Jack for doing what she did.  Somehow she knew that, had she been in her place, she would have done the same thing.

_Cast me gently into morning_

_For the night has been unkind_

Somehow she knew they would all heal.  But, as all deep wounds do, they would forever be scarred.

QoC: the phrase that is stared is something that I found on another story.  I have never been to a funeral, and therefore do not know what is said at one.  I know the "Ashes to ashes, dust to dust" thing, but not what it is called…if what was quote is incorrect, please let me know so I can correct it.


	12. Chapter Twelve: Strange Occurrences

**A/N**: I apologize for the delay on getting chapter 12 up—which is why it is quickly followed by chapter 13, both edited and delicious. Expect chapter 14 (the second to last chapter in the story) within the next three weeks or so, if not by the beginning of September. I hope you enjoy chapters 12 and 13!

**D/C**: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.

See new list of characters, now posted and updated in chapter 5are based upon actual people, but their names have been changed to protect the actual persons from a life of fame and wealth (hah! You wish…).

"Talking inside of each other's heads" was made up by the real Kirsten and Inad. They came up with it freshman year. I have yet to figure out whether they actually do it or not.

The majority of the comments in this story actually came from the people that are said to have said them. A few were added by me, but I won't tell you which ones, 'cuz that would spoil the whole story. sticks out tongue

/…\ means that it's a memory…

Thank you for all your wonderful reviews!

Chapter Twelve – Strange Occurrences

_"More better! It's the second derivative! It's like good squared!"_

_Thomas "The AP Turtle" Chen_

_BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!_

Chris jolted upright at the sound of his new alarm blaring. His heart felt like it was going a mile a minute, while his brain slowly adjusted to the harsh realities of life.

Inad and Kirsten had been lowered into their respective holes in the ground the day before.

He had caused the breakup of one of his favorite couples.

Lia hated him.

_Daniel_ hated him.

It was still raining.

It seemed that the only good thing about that morning was that he had forgotten to take off the setting on his alarm so that he would wake up whenever he wanted to. Being Saturday, 6 AM was a bit early to be up and wandering around. However, once awake, Chris found it difficult to fall back asleep again.

Grumbling slightly, he threw back the covers and slipped off his bed. Cursing the cold wooden floors, he padded out of his room and down the hallway towards the bathroom. On his trip back to find a pair of socks, he heard a pair of voices coming from Zack's room, one belonging to a female.

"Do you think I'm doing the right thing?"

Chris paused and gingerly leaned against the wall, trying to avoid letting the floor boards creak with his shifted weight.

"I honestly have no idea," said the Brit.

The bed inside groaned as someone sat down on it.

"I just hoped…I guess, that you might know how to help with this." There was a slight pause, and then, "It's just that this is so complicated!"

"Tearing out your hair won't make it any better."

"It's not like anyone would notice, or be able to tell."

"That's not the point, Lia."

_Lia?_ Chris thought. _How'd she get in here?_

"I don't care. I just…."

"Hoped that he would forget that he doesn't care for you in that way?"

"When you say it like that, it's really harsh," Lia said in a hurt voice.

"Er, sorry…you know what I mean, though. Right?"

"Yeah," she said in a resigned voice, "it's just…I dunno, the way he talks to me…I've never had a guy treat me the way he does."

"No chance in hell that he's gay, eh?" Chris frowned at the smile in Zack's voice. When Lia didn't reply, he knew that she was blushing.

"Um…considering…." She trailed off, and the bed squeaked again.

"Eavesdropping?" a voice whispered in Chris' ear. He jumped and pivoted to see who was behind him. Matt, grinning from ear to ear, must have just gotten home, as he was still dressed. The dark circles under his eyes betrayed the fact that he hadn't gotten any sleep the night before.

Annoyed that he couldn't continue listening to the reasons why Lia was at his house at six o'clock in the morning, Chris grabbed Matt's slightly damp sleeve and pulled him into the living room. "Why are you just getting home?"

"Why are you listening at Zack's door?"

"I asked you first."

"I'm older."

"I don't care. Mom and Dad will _freak_ if they—"

Matt raised an eyebrow. "If they what? Find out I just got home? Chris, I'm 19."

Chris shifted his weight from one foot to the other. "…Yeah? So?"

"And it's not any of your business, anyway…." His evil grin returned. "But they _will_ freak if they find out that Zack has a girl in his bedroom this early."

Chris' eyes widened. "I don't even know what she's doing here. I didn't hear the door open."

"Her car's parked across the street, and the screen on Zack's window is lying on the lawn. How's that?"

A squeaking sound confirmed the fact that the window was opening, and that Lia was now escaping. Chris looked at Matt for a moment, and then darted for the front door. It was, if possible, raining harder than it had been when he looked out the window barely ten minutes ago. At first he ignored the freezing pavement, and then the water was soaking him A1 as he ran across the front yard.

"Lia!"

The girl looked up from her car across the street, a look of pain splayed across her face. "Go away, Chris."

Chris stopped in his tracks, feeling as though he'd been smacked. "What?"

The rain was flattening her hair, plastering it to her face and making her look even sadder than she already was. "Leave me alone."

"Lia…."

"Haven't you hurt me enough, already!" She nearly screamed the words at him.

Chris saw her as though they were a thousand miles apart, when in reality it was only about fifteen feet or so. He saw the intense green eyes that lay sparkling with tears below her dripping bangs. He gazed at the pools of pain, looked into her, seeing torment from the thought of losing first Kirsten and Inad, and then the betrayal….

He took a soggy step forward, and Lia let out a derisive laugh. "Do you think that anything you say is going to heal what _you've_ done to me? Jack, I can forgive…I've known her for too long.

"But you…you know how I feel about you."

Chris stood immobilized: Lia was expressing how she felt about him. She was actually saying it out loud.

"You _knew_ that I liked you…."

He sighed exasperatedly and ran his hands through his soaked hair. "Lia, I can't—"

"I'll tell you what you _can't_ do, Chris." She was crying freely now, the tears mingling with the raindrops. "You can't fix what you've done. You can't help the fact that you treated me better than any other person has in this world. You can't help the fact that you were just acting humanly." She turned towards the car and opened the door, starting to get in. "You can't help that I started to like you."

Again he stood immobilized, this time by the force of the words that she was saying, and the realization of her situation.

He had no idea who she was.

"Lia, wait." He moved quickly, grabbing the car door before it shut.

"God_damn_it, Chris!"

"Please, Lia…." Had the situation not been so serious, he would have laughed out loud: the conversation was beginning to sound more and more like the stupid soap operas that his mother watched while ironing. "Lia, tell me what happened."

She was so startled by the question that she stopped crying. "What!"

"What happened between you and Sam?"

Lia looked uneasy for a moment, and then bit her lip. "That…." She shook herself. "That's none of your business."

"Lia—"

"Goodbye." She pried his hand off the car door, although Chris hadn't made any attempt to stop her, and even stepped away from the car when she turned the engine. For the second time that week, he was watching her drive away crying, in the rain.

&

Hermione sat on her hotel bed, doing her homework. No matter how hard she tried, though, the usually easy math equations just wouldn't sort themselves out in her head. She couldn't help but think about the other morning, when over the PA, the principal announced the death of two of the juniors at the school. It had come as a shock how much it affected her alone. The other students in her class were almost as surprised as Ron when she started to cry. Her thoughts had jumped to Harry, wondering whether he was alive still, or whether the death of Hedwig had been a sign that he, too, was gone forever.

Without telling anyone, she had attended the funeral. She snuck onto the bus that left the school, the hood of her coat covering most of her hood, and stood at the back of the group in the rain, listening to the murmuring, the sobs, and the sniffles around her. She saw the two girl's' parents weeping over the coffins that were suspended over the holes in the ground, saw their friends, crowded around hugging each other. For one wild, fleeting moment, she swore that she saw Harry with them, and realized that was impossible. For one thing, he was much too tall, wasn't wearing glasses, and had a limp when he walked. For another, Harry had disappeared in Seattle, over 100 miles from Vancouver, and surely, if he was still alive….

Well, if he were still alive, he wouldn't be here.

Hermione steeled that thought, and made up her mind to try to talk to one of the girls. She recognized one of them as the fiery, curly-haired girl that had blasted through her and Ron, and then the cheerleaders in front of them at their first day of school. Hermione needed to talk to someone—someone unfamiliar with her past, but familiar with the grief that came with loosing someone.

She was ready to talk about Harry.

&

Pyro sat in her car in the parking lot of the pool and stared out of the windshield at the driving rain. She didn't want to get out. It wasn't so much that she didn't want to endure the elements—in fact, it would have been a welcome change from the seeming normality that surrounded going to swim practice. She didn't care that she was already twenty minutes late.

The idea of facing Daniel and Jack after what had happened was strange. Jack refused to talk about what was going on between her and Daniel. It was obvious that they weren't speaking. It was also obvious that Daniel was purposely avoiding Jack, and shot furtive looks in Chris' direction whenever he thought no one was looking.

With a sigh, Pyro finally opened the door and stepped out, grabbing her swim bag from the seat next to her. The breakup was hard on everyone, not only because of the pain on Jack's face every time she, Jack, looked at Daniel from across the lunchroom, or saw him in the halls between classes. Jack and Daniel were close to being the perfect couple—or, at least, had been. Their "detours" were stuff of legend. Daniel used to treat Jack as though she were a princess, even though she hated it. They had been obviously "together", but not mushy, like other couples were. Jack had fought good and hard for Daniel, and nearly lost him to her own stupidity.

But their individual stupidity was what lost the relationship anyway, in the end.

Pyro absently made her way through the lobby and into the girl's locker room. A few other stragglers from the group below them were eagerly chatting about a new movie they had just seen. Pyro ignored them and changed into her suit, grabbed her cap and goggles, and went out on deck.

Jack was sitting with her back against the glass doors staring at the swimmers in the pool, while Coach barked out the set. She looked up as Pyro walked towards the front of the pool, and then back to the swimmers, or more accurately, Pyro realized as she got closer, to the concrete just in front of the edge of the pool. The teen endured Coach's wrath for being late, and then "fell" in the pool and swam. At one point, while Coach was giving out another set, she glanced over to Daniel's lane and saw something that she didn't expect to see. Rather than absorbing the instructions, he seemed to be watching Jack with a look of sadness.

The rest of practice went rather smoothly, except for Jack's near breakdown as she left for the locker rooms. Pyro assumed that she had gone home, and caught Daniel when he was getting out of the pool.

"Hey."

"Oh, hi, Pyro," he said back, as though noticing her for the first time.

"How're you doing?"

Daniel stared straight ahead of them, as though he didn't hear her question. Then, "I guess I'm okay."

"Hey, umm…" Pyro paused, and then put caution to the wind as she asked, "I, uh…I was wondering if you'd talked to Jack recently."

Daniel hadn't moved his head from the spot he was looking at. "No."

The response was so final that Pyro nearly said, "Fair thee well," and walked away. "Do you want to?"

"This isn't like you to meddle. Did _she_ put you up to this?"

"I'm not meddling. And Jack doesn't know I've even talked to you since…." She trailed off and with the randomness known to her stepped in front of Daniel's gaze. "I want to know something, and I need you to tell me the absolute truth."

"Well I don't really _want_ to tell you."

"You don't even know what it is!" Pyro exclaimed.

"If it's anything to do with me and Jack—"

"So what if it is? I mean, you two broke up, so it doesn't matter, right?" Pyro knew she had him in a trap. She hadn't asked for the details of the breakup—only the four of them (Chris, Jack, Daniel, and Lia) knew what had happened that night, and none of them had breathed a word to the others.

"Why don't you ask Chris? Or Lia? I'm sure they'd be more than happy to—"

"Actually, no. If I even mention it, Lia runs off crying and Chris shakes his head at me. Daniel, you actually loved Jack."

Daniel had a very pained expression on his face, as though he was about to either explode or start crying, neither of which Pyro wanted to see.

"I'll talk to you later, Pyro."

"But—"

"_Later_!"

Pyro was struck back by the force of the words, and this gave Daniel the chance for his escape to the boys' locker room, where she didn't dare follow. Instead, she ran to the girls' locker room and changed so fast that she was out before any of the other girls. The rain had stopped, leaving puddles everywhere, but the sky was still so dark that Pyro knew that they weren't going to get to see the sun that day. She walked over to Daniel's car, and waited.

&

It was completely unlike Daniel to take forever to change, but he knew that if he took long enough, he'd finish after Pyro, and she'd see that he wasn't there and leave. He stood in the showers and thought about everything that she'd said. _"I want to know something, and I need you to tell me the absolute truth…. You actually loved Jack._

_"You actually loved Jack."_

_Did I love her?_ Daniel asked himself. He thought back to everything they'd been through, from the beginning to the very end, and found that, though he was remorse to admit it, he had loved her. Hell, he still did. It tore him up to see her every day and not be able to go over and wrap his arms around her shoulders and plant a kiss atop her head. It killed him when she got out of the pool, struggling to breathe, chancing a look at him to see what he was doing.

Nearly 30 minutes after practice had officially ended, Daniel walked out of the locker room and towards his car. As he dug his keys out of his pocket, he saw the person he least wanted to see at that moment.

Pyro, shivering in the cold October day, was leaning against his car. When she saw him approaching, she hoisted herself up and began to walk over, her hands shoved in her pockets and shoulders hunched to provide more warmth.

"We need to talk," she said. "Whether you like it or not. It's not right of you to just…just…." She trailed off and pulled a hand out of her coat pocket to run it through her hair.

"Just not tell you why I broke up with my girlfriend?" Daniel supplied.

Pyro gave him a reproaching look. "If you want to put it like that, yes. She's completely devastated, Daniel."

"Then she shouldn't have kissed him."

"Kissed who? Who kissed?" Pyro said, mildly interested.

Daniel sighed and gave in, telling Pyro the entire story, complete with Jack accusing him of attempting to kill her.

"So you walked in on them kissing?" she asked.

"More or less," Daniel said, rubbing his arms. It _was_ rather cold outside.

"What do you mean, 'more or less'?" Pyro crossed her arms. "They either were or weren't kissing. Which was it?"

"From where I was standing, it sure looked like it. And Jack never denied it— nor Chris."

"So they could have been—"

Daniel blew out an exasperated puff of air. "There was no 'could have been', Pyro." He closed his eyes, as though in pain. Then, he added quietly, "I wish there had been a 'could have been'."

Pyro looked excited, and sloppily tried to cover it. "So you still love her—why dump her?"

"Pyro, she cheated on me. I don't understand how she could kiss someone that she'd been friends with for…for…." He ran a hand through his hair, so it now stood on end. He finally continued, in a pleading voice: "Pyro, I did love her. Dammit, I _still_ love her! You're right. But I can't take her back…not after…."

She slowly walked towards him and put her arms around him. It was completely unlike him to show his emotions so much, and it was hard to keep back the tears as they came. "Pyro, I still love her."

"I know," she said quietly. "And that's why you need to tell her—talk to her."

"It does you no good to dwell on what happened, Daniel," Nik's voice said. Daniel and Pyro turned to look at the side of the building. Unbeknownst to them, he had been leaning against the wall the entire time, and had most probably heard the whole conversation. Daniel gulped, and suddenly realized how Chris must have felt when he and Lia had walked into the hospital room that night. He guiltily wiped his tears, and rubbed his cheeks, pretending that it had been his intention to warm his face all along.

"I don't really know what you mean," Daniel told him, gently pushing away from Pyro.

"Here I have found you in a compromising position—your arms are around my girlfriend, whom I love as much as you love your Jack. Now, I know that she, too, loves me, and it does not bother me to see her hugging you. Do you know why?"

Daniel stared at him. Nik was such a strange person, someone who had just popped out of the woodwork one day and was as wise as any adult he knew. Nobody really understood him, and yet everything he said made sense.

"I understand that she is your friend. Just as Jack and Chris are friends. Now, you can ignore Jack from now on, and later regret that you let her go. Or, you could go and talk to her and straighten things out."

Daniel thought about his past year-and-a-half of dating Jack, all of the wonderful times the two had experienced. He thought about all the hardships, of all the waiting until he finally asked her out, and of the moment she asked him to be her boyfriend.

He knew what he had to do.

&

Zack sat chewing on the end of his pencil, studying the page of geometry homework. It seemed like he always had geometry homework nowadays. He had even started to have dreams completely to do with math class.

After finally completing all the angles on the shape on the page, Zack doodled a little drawing as he thought. The voices that he'd heard in his head…they'd sounded a lot like Kirsten and Inad. But had they really been them?

_They're dead, mate,_ Zack told himself.

He stared at his picture, trying to figure out what was missing. He had drawn a stick figure girl wearing what looked like a too-large overcoat or bathrobe, complete with sash. She had an abundance of thick, bushy looking hair. All that was missing was a hat, he thought. For some reason, his fingers drove him to draw a witch's hat, and then on a spur of imagination, a little badge with a 'P' on it. Suddenly, his head felt like it was about to split open, and memories filled his head.

/_"We're going to be late to class if you two don't hurry!" said a girl with bushy brown hair. On her chest gleamed a Prefect badge, complete with the Gryffindor lion…._\

Blurring, pain.

_/"You are so _reckless_!" she nearly screamed at them. "We could have been killed—or worse, _expelled_!"_

_The red haired, freckled boy beside him gave him a slight grin as he said, "She hasn't changed her priorities since our first year, has she, mate!"_\

Pain pain pain pain pain!

/_…He strained to remember the boy's name…whoever he was, he stood at the front of the party, accompanied by a pretty girl in blue robes he didn't know…_\

Blurring, fast forward through the memory, _pain_!

/_His eyes fell on the girl next to him, and his jaw dropped._

_It was Hermione._

_Hermione._

_Hermione._

_Hermione._\

Zack screamed as his forehead gave an almighty throb, and he blacked out.

&

Lia laid on her bed, curled around a pillow, a tissue box on her left and a large photo album in front of her. She was absently turning the pages, staring at each picture in turn and remembering each occasion.

This one was when she, Jack, Therese, Kaori, and Inad had gone to the beach their sophomore year. Lia pulled a tissue out of the box and sobbed into it at the sight of her dead friend.

This one was of Kirsten and Inad, and Kirsten's fuzzy pink notebook. More tears, more tissues.

This one was of herself, Jack, and Sam.

Sam…Sam had hurt her…she'd gone through so much pain with him…. Nobody knew what had happened with the two of them, and nobody knew why he had suddenly broken up with her.

/_Lia approached the table at lunch time, watching as all her friends talked animatedly. For some reason, they all seemed so much happier, now that she was so sad. She had never felt so much pain, and wasn't sure how she was going to get over it._

_No one looked up at her approach. A few people moved over for her to sit down, and it wasn't until she gave an almighty sniff that Jack and Inad turned around in surprise._

_"Lia?"_

_She didn't answer. Instead, she bent her head down so that her bangs hid her eyes from view, knowing that they'd be red from all the crying she'd done already._

_"Lia, what's wrong?"_

_Wordlessly, she slid a note to Jack, who picked it up and read it. "Dear Lia, I think that this letter is long overdue. We've been dating for three months now, and I'm sorry to say this relationship is going nowhere. I think it is time for us to see other people, and to grasp new opportunities. Come and see me in a few years when you feel more adventuresome. Always myself, Sam." Jack stared at it, and then looked up. "That bastard!"_

_Lia suddenly realized that everyone's eyes were on her._

_"Did he really write that?"_

_"Gol, we need to get back at him."_

_"The nerve! I can't believe someone could write something like that!"_

_Lia was now shaking with suppressed sobs. She felt a body suddenly envelope hers, and then another, and suddenly most of the table had rushed over to give her a hug. Through her pain and sadness, she felt a warm glow of happiness, knowing that her friends would always be there for her._\

Lia smiled at the memory, and then thought for a moment. _Would I have imagined today that I'd be in this huge fight?_ she wondered. _Is this even worth it?_

Chris didn't know what happened—he'd only been a freshman, and she hadn't known him that long at the time.

Jack seemed to genuinely want to be friends still. And, Lia knew, she really needed the support, at the moment.

Kirsten and Inad might be gone, but we still have the rest of our lives to live. I don't want to screw up my friendship because of something that happened…that hasn't happened since….

Lia put away her photo album and began to get ready for the next day at school.

&

Daniel closed the trunk of his car and moved towards the driver's door. As he started to open it, an older man wearing a black raincoat stopped him.

"Daniel O'Connor?"

The teen looked back at the man, and as he started to reach for his back pocket, Daniel froze. Was the man going to pull a gun on him? As he moved the edge of the coat aside, a holster—with a handgun strapped securely in—was brought into view. He pulled what looked like a wallet from his back pocket and flipped it open. A shiny police badge gleamed up at him.

"I'm Sergeant Matthews. We need to talk to you about an incident from four days ago."

&

_A cacophony of noise filtered in and out of his mind. Blinding pain radiated in his skull._

Echoing giggling, pain!

_ Zack shook his head, trying to see properly, trying to hear, trying to awaken his mind to the world of the living._

_ "You're trying too hard to remember," a voice said. A girl swam into view, a girl with long, curly black hair and piercing blue eyes._

_"What?"_

_"Don't try so hard to remember things! It'll all come in due time."_

_"These—these things I see in my mind, they're memories?"_

_"Times come and gone again. People who love and miss you. But worry not, because they will find you…all in due time._

_"Just don't forget those who love you now."_

Fading to black, swirling, voices, laughing, evil high pitched laughing….

&

Lia was sitting in her chair the next morning at school, reading her book, when someone tapped her on the shoulder. Looking up, she saw that it was one of the foreign exchange students she'd seen talking with the red-haired boy a few days ago.

"I know this is kind of abrupt," she said, her accent ringing clearly, "but I need to speak to you. My name's Hermione Granger."

Okay! That's chapter 12! Next chapter: Hermione pours her heart out to Lia; Daniel pleads his case; Jack talks; Kirsten and Inad giggle their way to insanity; and something that's been boiling up for a few months finally spills out all over the place. Stay tuned for more cliffhanger-y adventures! Mwahaha… XD

* * *

A1"was soaking him" 


	13. Chapter Thirteen: Awakening

See chapter twelve for AN.

Chapter Thirteen – Awakening

_"Dude…this _doesn't_ leave the court!"_

_Ash The Beta (v. 2.0!)_

"My name's Hermione Granger."

Lia kind of stared at the bushy-haired girl for a moment before replying. "Um…okay." She glanced at Kaori, who shrugged at her.

The two girls pushed through the crowd until they reached the stairs, and climbed to the top floor.

"How can I help you?" Lia asked Hermione. "Are you having problems with someone, or something? I'm not a peer mentor, but I have a friend who is, if you need to talk to one."

"Er, no, that's quite alright…I, er, noticed you in the halls a few days ago with another girl, and again at that funeral—"

Lia froze at the word, and before she could think, she was replying. "I'd rather not talk about that."

There was an awkward silence, complete with Hermione nervously twirling a finger around a lock of her hair.

"Sorry," Lia said quickly. "It's just—"

"So painful to talk about someone you've lost. That's what I want to talk to you about."

Lia blinked in surprise. "Eh?"

"A few weeks ago, my friends Ron and…and Harry—we were…." She stood immobile with fear, or pain. "We were traveling with my parents," she continued finally. "Harry went for a walk, and…."

The curly-haired teen waited as Hermione composed herself.

"He never came back," she finally squeaked.

"Do you know what happened?" Lia asked her, concerned.

"Oh, they think he was hit by a car, but the person who hit him had no record of living."

"What, like doesn't exist?"

Hermione smiled wryly. "Something like that."

Lia suddenly realized that the girl had no idea what her name was. "Oh, jeeze, I'm so sorry. My name's Lia. Lia Florence."

"What an unusual name!"

Lia snorted with laughter. "You think _my_ name's strange? You have a girl-ified version of the name of a Greek god!"

Hermione looked insulted for a moment, and then seemed to realize that Lia was right. "I'm sorry, Lia."

"Besides, my full name is Lianne—a very common name. It's just spelled differently than most, so I'm able to take the name Lia without looking strange."

"I know what you mean—my friend's little sister is called Ginny, but her full name is Ginevra."

QoC: Don't ask me where I found this little fact, 'cuz, quite honestly, I don't want to share my sources!

"Now, _that's_ an unusual name!"

The two girls shared a laugh.

"Now, Ron was it?" Lia started.

"Pardon me?"

"Ron, your friend who was kidnapped by non-existent people?"

"Oh, in one way, yes. But that was Harry that I was talking about," Hermione corrected her.

Lia blinked, and then roared with laughter as the joke made sense. "I'm sorry, yes, Harry. Did they ever find his body?"

"He wasn't killed. He was sent to a hospital…St. Michael's, or St. Mary's, or something like that."

Lia felt her blood run cold. "St. Christopher's?"

"Yes, that's it."

"And the person, you say—they didn't exist?"

Hermione frowned. "I forget how they put it…my mother said that he'd left with a group of Mug—er, teenagers, but the car was registered to a family that doesn't exist."

Lia was confused for a moment. It was more than obvious that this 'Harry' character that Hermione was talking about was their very own Zack. How many other Brits who are hit by cars could there be! But it didn't make sense that the car wouldn't have been registered to any living person.

The bell rang, making a good excuse for Lia to get away from this newest mystery and to go to her first period class.

"Look, come by at lunch and we can talk some more," Lia told her, then telling her how to get to the table. "You should be able to find us pretty easily."

"Right. Thank you, Lia. It's nice to be able to talk about Harry with someone who doesn't know him as much as my friends do. He's—er, he was sort of famous in Britain."

_Oh, God,_ Lia thought in horror as she descended the stairs. _I've kidnapped a prince, or something!_

&

Zack awoke on the floor the next morning, his geometry homework half finished, and Chris standing over him with a mixed look of annoyance and amusement on his face.

"I don't know what they taught you back in Britain, but we don't sleep on the floor. Especially on a school night!"

"What time is it?" Zack said. His voice cracked with disuse, causing Chris to smirk slightly.

"Late enough. We're waiting for Jack to pick us up."

Zack murmured a few choice swear words and then picked up his homework. "How much time do I have to get ready?"

"Enough to change and grab some food. Oh, and don't forget that Health project."

Zack groaned. "I completely forgot about it!"

"Forget about it for a little longer—if Jack gets here and you're not ready, she's going to be really, really pissed."

&

Daniel was silent for the entire car ride back to his house. His mother was torn between anger and relief that he wasn't in trouble. He had been cleared of all charges; there was no way that he could have attempted to kill Jack, seeing how the man that had been killed at the police station earlier in the week had turned out to be just a normal person. The thing that confused Daniel the most was that he hadn't even looked anything like himself—the only similarity between the two men was that they both had sandy hair.

He thought once again to the conversation that he'd had with Pyro the day before—he knew what he had to do, but he didn't know whether he had the courage to do it.

"You'll be late to school," his mother told him as he wolfed down his bacon, eggs, and toast (he hadn't eaten since before practice the day before). "I've got a note for you—just tell the wing ladies that you had a family emergency."

_Yeah_, Daniel smirked. _My own little emergency!_ After finishing his breakfast, he grabbed his book bag, the note that his mother had left on the counter, another piece of toast, and headed out to his car to go to school.

&

Lia doodled on her French worksheet, dimly hearing what her teacher was saying about the newest tense they were learning. It bothered her that she couldn't think of why Hermione Granger's search for the people who took Zack—rather, she now realized, Harry—came up with nothing. _It's not like they didn't have a record of who I was,_ she said to herself, furrowing her brow. The bell rang, announcing lunch, and she gathered her things up.

_We gave them all of my information,_ she thought to herself. She walked down the stairs through the hoard of people, each fighting to get to his or her destination. After only having to use her prep-maneuver twice, she finally got to the lunch table and sat down. _It's not like we're not listed in the phone book, anyway._

She looked up and saw Hermione and a redheaded boy approaching the table, and then she realized her error.

"Oh, shit!"

&

"She said a bad word."

"I know. But why?" Kirsten scratched her head, collecting some of her ringlets behind her fingers and pulling them taunt. They sprang right back into place, something they never did in the Real World.

"I don't know," Inad answered. "That Hermione girl didn't seem bad, or anything. Hey, that's a really unusual name. Where do you think it came from?"

"Probably England, or Greece, maybe."

"She doesn't look Greek."

"She doesn't look anything but Caucasian, Inad."

The two girls sat silently, watching as, in slow motion, Hermione approached the table and Lia got up to move away, almost as though in fear. "What did she figure out, though?"

"I don't know—but I think we're going to find out."

&

Zack's headache hadn't abated at all, and the incessant yelling of the students didn't help at all. _Maybe one of the girls will have something,_ he thought to himself. They always seemed to have pain medication for one thing or another—including cramps. He wrinkled his nose up. He didn't have cramps, but he hoped that they still had something that would work.

He rounded the corner, and the commons came into view. It still slightly intimidated him, for reasons unbeknownst to him. Eighteen hundred people milling around shouldn't be that different from where he went to school…could it?

He tried to picture what his school looked like, and the only thing that came to mind was the pretty girl that he had identified as Hermione the night before. Who was she? Why was she so special that she seemed to be in so many of his memories?

And why was she the one that he remembered first?

He gazed around the commons, trying to locate the table that the girls and Chris had chosen to eat at that day. It was hard, but he eventually located Lia's curls and made his way over to her.

The events from the other day had made her extremely wary of him, as though he were a snake about to reach out and bite her. He didn't know what had happened, and the memory that he'd remembered in the moments before the…the _thing_—what could he call it, he wondered? It wasn't much of an accident, and therefore couldn't be called one. It was an incident, but surely there was a better word for it…?

_Ah, forget it,_ he told himself. _I'm beginning to sound like…_ he tried to think, but no memory came to him that applied to the thought.

Things were beginning to get strange, he decided.

As he got closer to the table, he saw another girl approaching—one that he didn't recognize; yet she seemed familiar. Whatever it was about her, she seemed to unnerve Lia, for she cursed loud enough that, even through the din of the cafeteria, he could still hear her. She stood up, and began to back away from the table, only to run smack into Chris. Chris opened his mouth to say something, but she looked down at the floor and again tried to get away. This time, before he could remove himself from the situation, she rammed right into Zack, bowling him over into another table of preps.

There were squeals of pain and annoyance, and the girl that Zack didn't know came around to the other side to help Lia up.

"I'm so sorry," she said, her British accent lilting over the gibbering preps. She helped Lia to her feet, and then glanced over to Zack. Her brown eyes went huge, and she stopped in her tracks.

"Oh," she breathed finally.

Lia grabbed Zack and hauled him to his feet. He looked at the new girl, and she looked back at him. Out of his peripheral vision, he could see Lia looking back and forth between them, biting her lip.

"Um, Zack, this is—"

The girl didn't give Lia the time to introduce who she was, for she practically leaped for him, throwing her arms around him and, to his surprise and astonishment, began to sob onto his shoulder.

"I thought we'd never find you, but here you are, among _Muggles_, of all people! We've missed you—how come you didn't write us? Are you angry?"

"I'm sorry?"

She pulled away, her expression looking as though he'd just slapped her. He scanned her face, trying in vain to figure out why she was so familiar.

"Don't you recognize me?"

"I'm sorry, I—" Blinding pain suddenly flashed in his head, and he cried out. It flared in a peak, and more pain erupted somewhere in the vicinity of his knees; he belated realized that he'd collapsed.

He could dimly hear Lia gasping, and the girl screaming before the world went black once more.

&

Jack sluggishly walked to the lunch table, listening to the students yelling and laughing and talking around her. Nothing had been the same since Daniel had broken up with her. It had been painful enough to have her two friends die. Losing her boyfriend made her want to end her life. If it weren't for the mundane tasks of getting up, going to school, going to swim practice, doing homework, and then repeating the whole routine the next day, Jack thought that she might have tried to kill herself by now.

"Jack!"

She turned, hearing her name, and was surprised to see Daniel running towards her.

"Jack, I need to talk to you!"

She turned away again as tears sprang to her eyes. She felt a hand on her shoulder: Pyro had grabbed her, and was gently pushing her towards Daniel. "It's worth it," she said to her. Jack gave her a pained look, but turned back to her ex-boyfriend and began to walk.

"I just…" he began, and then ran a hand through his hair. "Jack, I want to say I'm sorry."

"You're sorry," she repeated, a little confused.

"I'm sorry for not trusting you. I'm sorry for walking away from you when you needed me. I'm sorry for being a horrible friend."

"What?"

"I'm sorry for breaking up with you, because I still love you."

Jack felt like he could have had the same effect by throwing a brick at her stomach. He still loved her. He _loved_ her. "Daniel," she said, hopelessly. "I just…" The tears she'd been trying to keep from her face filtered down without her permission. She angrily tried to wipe them away, but Daniel's hand had beaten her to it. She felt his thumb gently caress her cheek and he dried it, and Jack knew she was gone.

"I completely understand," he said, "if you don't want to get back together. But I would like a second chance. You deserved a second chance. I wish that I had been there that night instead of Chris, but I wasn't. I would like to make it up to you, if you'd let me."

She opened her eyes, and looked straight into his. The blue of them, although light, almost like ice, were warm and inviting. She closed her eyes again, and grabbed his hand with her own.

"I'd like that."

The peace of the moment was broken by a fear-stricken scream that ravaged the commons.

&

_He felt the darkness as keenly as he had three months ago. This time, the tickle that had been on the edge of his mind was now pressing in on him from all sides, trying to destroy his memory. He fought against it with all his power, and when a pinprick of light appeared in the distance, bidding him to come closer, he did not._

_"I won't go! I won't!"_

_"But you must," said the voice, a throbbing, musical voice of a young woman. "You must if you are to win against the evil that contains you."_

_"I will only go if you return to me that which you took." His green eyes pierced the darkness, and it cleared to show a woman who could have been his twin: her hair, dark like a raven's, curled around her. Her skin was pale and unblemished, her blue-white eyes so clear that the magic that was in them pulsed within his chest._

_"You wished all your life to be special to someone, for someone to love you. You world changed dramatically that night, in the hut on the rocks. From then on you wished only to live a life of peace and quiet, uninterrupted by the man who killed your parents, and your friend. Are you truly ready to go back into it?"_

_"I wish to return to my remaining friends," he told her. "I need their love. I do not belong here, no matter how welcome these people make me feel. I need their love._

_"And they need mine."_

_"You believe what your heart tells you," she said, a sad smile playing on her full lips once more. "Promise me you'll be careful…Harry."_

_The bright light roared in his ears._

He awoke to the warm, cinnamon eyes of the one girl that mattered most to him in the world.

"I love you, Hermione Granger."

* * *


End file.
